Question

Question 27 3 pts The character matrix below displays the genetic sequences for 5 different species. Each genetic locus can be considered an independent character with four possible states: A, C, G, or T. Which of the following sets of loci are parsimony uninformative? Locus 1 2 3 4 5 6 Species A ATG ACA Species B A CGGCT Species C ATCTAA Species D ACG CAT | Species E ACG G TI 0 Locus 1 Loci 1.3.4 Loci 1.3 Loci 2.5.6 3 pts Question 28

Answer 1

Locus 1

​​​​​​The method of maximum parsimony which is used for building phylogenetic trees is based upon the number of changes occurring for the evolution of one species into another. To draw the tree using this method, we mark all the character changes on the tree and then calculate the tree length which is the number of changes occurring in the tree. The most appropriate tree is the one which has the least number of steps. It is because we assume that one step is equal to 1 mutation and the rate of mutation in nature is very slow.

Parsimonious uninformative characters are those which are same in all the species. These characters cannot be used to differentiate between the given species and therefore they are not useful for building trees.

In the given case, first character is an uninformative because it is same in all the species.

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