BIOL 1911 Chapter Notes - Chapter 26: Gene Duplication, Comparative Genomics, Molecular Clock
13 Feb 2018
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24. 4 a(cid:374) orga(cid:374)is(cid:373)"s evolutio(cid:374)ary history is docu(cid:373)e(cid:374)ted i(cid:374) its ge(cid:374)o(cid:373)e. Comparisons of nucleic acids or other molecules can reveal phylogenetic relationships that cannot be determined by nonmolecular methods such as comparative anatomy. Analysis of molecular data helped uncover evolutionary relationships between animals and fungi, which have few morphological similarities. Molecular methods allow us to reconstruct phylogeny among groups of present-day organism for which the fossil record is poor or lacking. Different genes can evolve at different rates (even in the same evolutionary lineage) molecular trees can represent short or long periods of time; it just depends on the gene being studied. Dna sequences that evolve relatively slowly are useful for investigating relationships between taxa that diverged hundreds of millions of years ago. Dna that evolves relatively rapidly can be used to explore recent evolutionary events. Molecular data reveal the evolutionary history of genome change.
