Question

Which of the following statements accurately describes information found in the phylogenetic tree shown?

Deinococcus is more closely related to Chloroflexus than Deinococcus is to Synechococcus.

Neisseria and Escherichia are examples of Gram-positive genera.

Aquifex is the ancestral genus that gave rise to all bacterial species found today.

Verrucomicrobium is an extinct genus used as the root of this phylogenetic tree.

Archaea Eukarya Aquifex Thermotoga Root of bacterial tree Deinococcus - Chloroflexus - Synechococcus Chloroplast Bacillus - Mycoplasma - Clostridium Streptomyces - Micrococcus - Mycobacterium Beta Rhodospirillum Rickettsia Alpha - Mitochondria - Neisseria – Escherichia - Gamma Pseudomonas - Helicobacter Delta/Epsilon Nitrospira - Acidobacterium Bacteroides Chlorobium- Treponema Chlamydia Planctomyces Verrucomicrobium 0.1 100 mutations/1,000 nt

Answer 1

The only statement that accurately describes the information shown in the phylogenetic tree is- Deinococcus is more closely related to Chloroflexus than Deinococcus is to Synechococcus. The reason behind this is that Deinococcus and Chloroflexus have a more recent common ancestor than Deinococcus and Synechococcus.