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TASK 11 – USING MOLECULAR HOMOLOGY TO DETERMINE EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG LIVING HOMINOIDS
AUTHORS
Tony Chiovitti – The Gene Technology Access Centre
DESCRIPTION OF TASK
In this task, students are introduced to the concept of molecular homology and the application of nucleotide sequence data to constructing phylogenetic trees. Trained in these principles, students then use mitochondrial DNA sequences and programs available at the Biology WorkBench website to construct a phylogenetic tree for the superfamily Hominoidea. The task enables students to discover firsthand who among the hominoids are the closest living relatives of modern humans.
Link to VCE Biology
Unit 4: Outcome 2 (Change over time)
- Evidence of evolution: molecular evidence
- Evolutionary relationships: conservation of genes; mitochondrial evolution
- Hominoid evolution
SAC for Outcome 2: An oral or written report that demonstrates evolutionary relationships using first- or second-hand data.
BACKGROUND
Human evolution is a fascinating and ongoing topic of biological research. Although questions of human evolution traditionally have been studied by paleontological methods, the modern genomics era has made possible new ways of exploring the evolutionary relationships between humans and other species. Using free web-based bioinformatics programs students can generate sequence alignments and construct phylogenetic trees from mitochondrial DNA sequences to analyse the evolutionary position of humans among the living hominoids.
The task is supported by an instructional PowerPoint presentation, a file containing hominoid mtDNA sequences, and a link to the Biology WorkBench website. The PowerPoint presentation and student activity should be completed in a single lesson (50 mins). Extra time can be allocated for supplementary questions either at home or as a SAC task.
MATERIALS
1. PowerPoint Presentation
2. Student Worksheet - Teachers copy this for students
3. Advice to Teachers – Details on how to use Biology Workbench
4. Data File – Hominoid mtDNA
5. Biology WorkBench - available from the URL address http://workbench.sdsc.edu/
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