Evolutionary Genomics and Molecular Phylogeny
Big idea: This Grade 12 capstone connects ortholog, synteny, molecular clock, phylogenomics, ancestral-state reconstruction to evaluate complex biological systems through evidence, uncertainty, responsible inference and real-world application.
Learning goals
- ortholog
- synteny
- molecular clock
- phylogenomics
- ancestral-state reconstruction
Core concepts
A gene in different species descended from one gene in their last common ancestor through speciation.
Conservation of gene order or chromosome blocks across genomes, informative about rearrangements and ancestry.
A model relating accumulated sequence change to time, calibrated with independent dates and uncertainty.
Inference of evolutionary relationships using large sets of genes or whole genomes rather than one marker.
Statistical estimation of character or sequence states at internal nodes of a phylogenetic tree.