A gap exists between paleontological and neontological approaches to ruminant phylogenetics, despite great increases in phylogenetic resolution through molecular work of the last three decades, and a large and growing fossil record. This gap is reflected in differing methodological approaches, with insufficient integration of the large fossil record by molecular studies on the one hand, and ins...

Protein-L-isoaspartyl (D-aspartyl) O-methyltransferase (E.C. 2.1.1.77) is a well-conserved and widely distributed protein repair enzyme that methylates isomerized or racemized aspartyl residues in age-damaged proteins. We exploited the availability of protein sequences from 10 diverse animal, plant and bacterial taxa to construct a phylogenetic tree and determine the rates of amino acid substit...

Turtles are one of Earth's most instantly recognizable life forms, distinguished for over 200 million years in the fossil record. Even so, key nodes in the phylogeny of turtles remain uncertain. To address this issue, we sequenced >90% of the nuclear recombination activase gene 1 (RAG-1) for 24 species representing all modern turtle families. RAG-1 exhibited negligible saturation and base compo...

Evolutionary trees underpin virtually all of biology, and the wealth of new genomic data has enabled us to reconstruct them with increasing detail and confidence. While phenotypic (typically morphological) traits are becoming less important in reconstructing evolutionary trees, they still serve vital and unique roles in phylogenetics, even for living taxa for which vast amounts of genetic infor...

Phylogenetics is the application of comparative studies of genetic sequences in order to infer evolutionary relationships among organisms. This tool can be used as a form of molecular epidemiology to enhance traditional population-level communicable disease surveillance. Phylogenetic study has resulted in new paradigms being created in the field of communicable diseases and this commentary aims...

Beginner 1 hour This course provides a basic introduction to the field of phylogenetics, with an emphasis on how to read and interpret phylogenetic trees. An undergraduate-level understanding of biology would be an advantage. Learning objectives: Describe several applications of phylogenetics Explain how to read simple trees Identify major stages in phylogenetic analyses Access bioinformatics t...

The molecular phylogenetics of the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) is well studied, but that of Trichoptera (caddisflies), the sister clade of Lepidoptera, is less studied. The PCR primer libraries developed for lepidopteran phylogenetics might work in Trichoptera. DNA from 8 caddisfly species (Asynarchus nigriculus (Banks, 1908), Grammotaulius lorettae Denning, 1941, Hesperophylax occident...