Phylogeny Friday - 19 May 2006

As I mentioned previously, I'm busy preparing some data for a meeting next week. I don't have much time to devote to Phylogeny Friday, so I'll be sharing some of my own data with you. This data is nothing special; it just happens to be the data I finished analyzing a few minutes ago. It's open, I could build a tree, and I'll show you that tree below the fold.

i-8f1232a7350f5384330f9a866c2f92d6-phyl_fri(19May2006).JPG

This tree contains a scant three sequences. The two closely related sequences both come from Drosophila pseudoobscura and the outgroup is a gene from D. melanogaster. This gene was duplicated along the D. pseudoobscura lineage. In the time since the duplication event, the two copies in the D. pseudoobscura lineage have diverged from each other. One copy has accumulated two amino acid substitutions, and the other copy has accumulated one amino acid substitution. Remember how we discussed how relative rates of evolution can be used to detect changes in selective constraint? Well, these paralogs diverged too recently for us to have enough power to detect any differences in rates along the two lineages.

I know it's not a very interesting tree, but it's all I have time for today. Sorry. This next week will be hectic, so don't expect much from Phylogeny Friday for another couple of weeks.

More like this

Bora has been pushing the idea of publishing original research (hypotheses, data, etc) on science blogs. This post is part of a series exploring the evolution of a duplicated gene in the genus Drosophila. Links to the previous posts can be found below. Part 2 of this series (The Backstory) can…
This is a repost (with some edits) of an introduction to publishing original research on blogs -- a series I am reintroducing. The original entry can be found here. Previous entries: Part 1 - Introduction This post is part of a series exploring the evolution of a duplicated gene in the genus…
I've been busy this past week (and I'll be busy in the next couple of weeks to come), so I don't have much time to post to evolgen. For this reason this week's Phylogeny Friday is a recycled post from the old site. Check out the comments on the original entry for some remarks from one of the…
Historical Inaccuracy Edition A lot of us who work in well established biological systems take for granted how those systems were first discovered or established. Sometimes this involves the choice by an individual to begin studying development using a small worm. Other times it's the fortunate…