With increasing frequency, systematic and evolutionary biologists have turned to the techniques of molecular biology to complement their traditional morphological and anatomical approaches to questions of the historical relationship and descent among groups of animals and plants. In particular, the comparative analysis of DNA sequences is becoming a common and important focus of research attention today. The objective of this volume is to survey the emerging field of molecular systematics of DNA sequences, and to appraise the strengths and limitations of the different approaches yielded by these techniques. The contributors are an internationally recognized group of investigators from different schools and disciplines who critically address a diversity of crucial questions about DNA systematics, including DNA sequence data acquisition, phylogenetic inference, congruence and consensus problems, limitations of molecular data, and the integration of molecular and morphological data sets. The work will interest all botanists and zoologists involved in systematics, taxonomy, and evolution.
Author(s): Michael M. Miyamoto, Joel Cracraft
Edition: 1
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Year: 1991
Language: English
Pages: 369
Contents......Page 6
1. Phylogenetic Inference, DNA Sequence Analysis, and the Future of Molecular Systematics......Page 14
2. DNA Sequencing: Strategy and Methods to Directly Sequence Large DNA Molecules......Page 29
3. The Application of Automated DNA Sequence Analysis to Phylogenetic Studies......Page 56
4. Computer Alignment of Sequences......Page 70
5. Aligning DNA Sequences: Homology and Phylogenetic Weighting......Page 84
6. Relative Efficiencies of Different Tree-Making Methods for Molecular Data......Page 101
7. Compositional Statistics Evaluated by Computer Simulations......Page 140
8. Weighted Parsimony: Does it Work?......Page 158
9. Testing the Theory of Descent......Page 166
10. Parsimony and Phylogenetic Inference using DNA Sequences: Some Methodological Strategies......Page 195
11. Evolutionary Analysis of Length-Variable Sequences: Divergent Domains of Ribosomal RNA......Page 232
12. Statistical Methods for Testing Molecular Phylogenies......Page 260
13. Discriminating Between Phylogenetic Signal and Random Noise in DNA Sequences......Page 289
14. When are Phylogeny Estimates from Molecular and Morphological Data Incongruent?......Page 306
15. Congruence Among Data Sets: A Bayesian Approach......Page 345
C......Page 358
D......Page 360
G......Page 361
J......Page 362
M......Page 363
P......Page 364
R......Page 365
S......Page 366
T......Page 368
X......Page 369
