23 August 2022

Biología de Organismos en inglés BIOL 1300. Semester 2022-20.

Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, UniAndes, Bogotá.
Prof. Andrew J. Crawford, DCB, UniAndes, Bogotá. aj.crawford244@uniandes.edu.co

In-class problem / Homework:

Week 3: Inferring a Phylogenetic Tree

You might complete this today, but if not, please upload to BrightSpace before Saturday
23:59 h, August 27th, 2022.

Resources:
1. Class lectures
2. Hillis et al. (2020) Life 12th Ed., Chapter 20, section 22.2
3. Video online: Making trees w Professor Mohamed Noor (18’):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=lTkKHvwHp6w&list=PL_onPhFCkVQjWT7xAaImfy-891BXoC0-o&index=60

Infer the phylogeny of 6 types of land plants based on six characters.

Assume the Green Algae is your outgroup, since we know that this is not a land plant, but it is a green
plant. Draw the best tree you can discover that is supported by the following 6 characters. In the
matrix below, for each character a ‘0’ represents ‘absence’ and is the ancestral state, while ‘1’
indicated ‘presence’ and is the derived, new, or ‘evolutionarily novel’ state. Note that five of your
six characters are synapomorphies, but one is not. We will use the parsimony criterion to infer
the shortest tree = the tree with the fewest character state changes possible. Remember that in
parsimony we only used the ‘derived’ states, the synapomorphies, as a source of information of
relationships. (In other words, we never use the ancestral states, the ‘0’s, to group species, only the
‘1’s).

(1) Draw your solution for best cladogram (!), (2) label the tips with species, (3) mark the location
and the name of every character state change (synapomorphies, and autapomorphies &
homoplasies, if you have any). (4) State the length of your tree (the number of steps show on it).

True Protected Vascular

leaves Flowers embryo Seeds cells Stomata
Green algae (Pediastrum) 0 0 0 0 0 0
Liverwort (Marchantia) 0 0 1 0 0 0
Pine (Pinus) 1 0 1 1 1 1
Spikemoss (Selaginella) 0 0 1 0 1 1
Resurrection Fern
1 0 1 0 1 1
(Pleopeltis)
Haircap Moss (Polytrichum) 0 0 1 0 0 1

Frailejón (Espeletia) 1 1 1 1 1 1
Use MS word to edit this sheet to make room for your tree, if necessary.
When everyone in your group helps find the best solution to this problem and agrees on the result,
draw the tree very nicely. Add pictures/illustrations from the internet of species and characters, if
you want . By hand is OK, but probably better electronically. Save this document formatted as
MS Word or PDF.
One member of your group will then upload this to BrightSpace (assignment “Parsimony: phylogeny
of land plants”) and receive a grade that will be copied to all members of the group. Official group
members who did not participate should not be listed below.
We will likely have a question like this on Parcial 1, so please use this opportunity to practice and
make sure all members of your group are able to complete this assignment.
All participating members are responsible for making sure their name and code number appears
below.
Group number, according to BrightSpace : __________

Names and code numbers of only group members that participated in this activity:

1. _______________________________ _______________________

2. _______________________________ _______________________

3. _______________________________ _______________________