Question

Imagine the scenario: You are a famous scientist who has been studying blood parasites across the globe. You have just returned from the Amazon rainforest where you have collected 12 blood samples from different monkeys and also one human sample from a Brazilian volunteer. You want to investigate what type of parasite do monkeys have, and whether it has originated from humans? You decide to sequence one of the ribosomal RNA genes, the 18S rRNA. Why did you choose this gene?

Answer 1

18S ribosomal RNA is a basic component of all eukaryotic cells. In molecular analysis to reconstruct the evolutionary history of organisms,sequence data from18S rRNA genes is widely used. It has slow evolutionary rate. So that it is very suitable to reconstruct ancient divergences. In phylogenetic studies, 18S rRNA gene is most frequently used. These rRNA gene sequences are easy to access. The genome provides excessive amounts of template DNA for PCR.