LESSON 11

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to molecular systematics, emphasizing definitions and essential terms from the lecture notes.

Molecular Systematics

A field that uses molecular data to analyze and reconstruct evolutionary relationships between organisms.

Phylogenetic Tree

A diagram that represents evolutionary relationships among biological species based on similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics.

DNA Sequencing

The process of determining the exact sequence of nucleotides within a DNA molecule.

Homologous Genes

Genes in different species that evolved from a common ancestor and usually retain similar sequences.

Mutation

A change in the nucleotide sequence of an organism's DNA, which can lead to variations in traits.

Substitution Mutation

A type of mutation where one base pair in the DNA sequence is replaced by another.

Indel Mutations

Insertions or deletions of nucleotides in a DNA sequence; these can complicate sequence alignment.

Genetic Distance

A measure of the genetic divergence between species; expressed as the number of nucleotide differences per site.

Maximum Likelihood

A statistical approach for inferring phylogenies that selects the tree topology with the highest probability of producing the observed data.

Bayesian Inference

A method of estimating phylogenies that incorporates prior probabilities with observed data to infer tree solutions.

Parsimony Method

A tree-building method that prefers the simplest explanation or the tree with the least number of changes.

Mitochondrial DNA

DNA located in the mitochondria that is inherited maternally and is useful in evolutionary studies.

Genome

The complete set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism.

Sequence Alignment

A method of arranging the sequences of DNA, RNA, or protein to identify regions of similarity.

Nucleotide Position

The specific location of a nucleotide within a DNA or RNA sequence.

Positional Homology

The correspondence of nucleotide positions between sequences that can trace back to a common ancestor.

Insertion

A mutation where one or more nucleotides are added to a DNA sequence.

Deletion

A mutation where one or more nucleotides are removed from a DNA sequence.

Clade

A group of organisms believed to have evolved from a common ancestor.

Informative Sites

Nucleotide positions in a sequence that provide significant phylogenetic information.

Autapomorphies

Derived characteristics that are unique to a particular lineage.

UPGMA

Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean; a method used for constructing phylogenetic trees.

Gene Tree

A tree that represents the evolutionary relationships of a particular gene across different species.

Species Tree

A phylogenetic tree that illustrates the evolutionary relationships among different species.

Clock Model

A model that describes the rate of evolution for sequences in a phylogenetic analysis.

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)

A computational method used for estimating complex probabilities and exploring possibilities in phylogenetic analysis.

Frontal Alignment

The alignment of nucleotide sequences that provides insights into their evolutionary relationships.