Phylogenetics

  • Systematics: study of diversity/evolutionary relationships
  • Taxonomy (describing/naming/classifying)
    • Nested hierarchy (domain -> species) 
    • Taxon (taxa pl.): general name for group @ any level 
    • Domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species (King Phillip came over for great spaghetti) 
    • binomial nomenclature: two-name naming system where species = basic unit
  • Linking taxonomy and phylogeny
    • Linnaean classification/phylogeny can differ from each other
    • Phylogeny (includes evolutionary history): groups with common ancestor and all descendants
    • Phylogenetic species concept: smallest set of organisms that can be distinguished into phylogenetic tree (how much ancestry shared/how much evolution occurred) 
  • Basics of phylogenetics (Intro)
    • Phylogenetic tree: branching diagram; pattern of descent; hypothesis about evolutionary relationships 
    • Dichotomies: 2-way branch points
    • Extant species: alive, tips of branches
  • How to read a phylogeny 
    • Rooted tree: represents most recent common ancestor of all taxa on tree
    • Basal taxon: diverges early/originates near common ancestor (Ex: ancestor more like leopard, fewest changes) -> note that ancestors don’t have all char. Of descendants
    • Branch point: divergence of 2 species from common ancestor
    • Sister taxa: 2 taxa share immediate common ancestor (most recently related) 
    • Polytomy: >2 groups emerge from 1 branch 
    • Monophyletic: includes ancestor/all descendants
    • All members of group share common ancestor, trace evolutionary relationships
    • Paraphyletic grouping (missing descendants, common ancestor included): common ancestry and some but not all descendants, not a natural evolutionary grouping 
    • Polyphyletic grouping (wrong descendants, common ancestor is missing): doesn’t include most recent common ancestor and misrepresents evolutionary relationships 
  • Making phylogenetics: inferred from molecular/morphological traits
    • Cladistics: groups organisms by common descent/ancestry 
    • Clade: group including ancestral species/all descendants 
  • General methods 
    • Homology (homologous): derived from common ancestor
    • Analogies (analogous characteristics): not good for phylogenies
    • Convergent evolution (independently acquired) bc of similar evolutionary pressure; not from same ancestor 
    • Homologies are good characteristics to build tree; all characters in phylogeny must result from homology (bat/bird wings are homologous as forelimbs, analogous as functional wings) -> divergent 
    • Shared ancestral characters: char. Of group present in ancestors that remain present in descendants 
    • Shared derived characters: char. Unique to particular clade; originates in recent CA and present in all descendants 
    • Outgroup: taxa diverged before lineage being studied
    • Ingroup: taxa being studied
    • Recent development use programs/math to analyze relationships (primary structure of proteins--DNA, mRNA sequence/molecular similarities: same pattern to distinguish homology from analogy) 
HomologousAnalogous 
Common ancestry Common selection pressures
Divergent evolution Convergent evolution (wings in birds vs bats)