Molecular Taxonomy and Phylogenetics

Flashcards summarizing key concepts from the lecture on molecular taxonomy and phylogenetics.

What are the major characteristics used in taxonomy?

Classical (morphological, ecological, physiological, biochemical, genetics), molecular (comparison of proteins, RNA, DNA).

What role does cytochrome c play in molecular taxonomy?

Cytochrome c is a highly conserved protein used as a molecular clock to correlate amino acid differences with evolutionary divergence.

What is the key application of 16S rRNA in molecular taxonomy?

It is used for deep phylogenetics and identifying prokaryotic species due to its universal conservation.

What technique is considered the gold standard for species delineation using DNA?

DNA-DNA hybridization (DDH) is the traditional gold standard for species delineation.

What does a phylogenetic tree represent?

A phylogenetic tree is a branching diagram representing the evolutionary relationships among taxa.

What is the difference between a monophyletic group and a paraphyletic group?

A monophyletic group includes an ancestor and all its descendants, while a paraphyletic group includes an ancestor and some, but not all, descendants.

How does the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) function in molecular taxonomy?

PCR amplifies target DNA exponentially, enabling the analysis of specific genomic sequences.

What is the purpose of DNA barcoding?

DNA barcoding uses short DNA sequences as universal identifiers for rapid species identification.

What is the significance of ribosomal RNA in understanding life's diversity?

Ribosomal RNA genes are conserved and useful for deep phylogenetic studies, revealing evolutionary relationships.

What are some common methods for constructing phylogenetic trees?

Methods include distance-based methods (UPGMA, Neighbor-Joining), Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood, and Bayesian Inference.