Question

Please help. I am so lost. MICROBIOLOGY

Evolutionary distance is a number that can help describe relatedness. It is defined as

the percent of nonidentical bases. Using the following sequences, calculate an evolutionary distance between the first two organisms . Of the three, which

two are most closely related?

Microbe 1:AGGUACGUUA

Microbe 2:UGGCACGGUU

Microbe 3:AGGUACGGUU

Answer 1

Microbe 1:AGGUACGUUA

Microbe 2:UGGCACGGUU

Microbe 3:AGGUACGGUU

• there are 4 nucleotide mismatch between microbe 1 and 2 .. therefore the evolutionary distance is 40% (4 out of 10 nucleotide are mismatched)
• there are 2 nucleotide mismatch between microbe 1 and 3 .. therefore the evolutionary distance is 20% (2 out of 10 nucleotide are mismatched)
• there are 2 nucleotide mismatch between microbe 2 and 3 .. therefore the evolutionary distance is 20% (2 out of 10 nucleotide are mismatched)

1 and 3 are more closely related because the mutation is at 2 nucleotides only which are very near to each other, which suggest this is cause of one time mutation only.