Slide 1

Knowing the relationship between species is important. It allows scientists to fully understand the
origin of each organism and how closely related they are with each other. This lesson focuses on
discussing the phylogenetic tree of life. In particular, you will explore the importance of constructing
phylogenetic trees in the proper classification of organisms into their respective groups.

Slide 4

A phylogenetic tree, also known as a phylogeny, is a diagram that depicts the lines of evolutionary
descent of different species, organisms, or genes from a common ancestor. Tree diagrams have been
used in evolutionary biology since the time of Charles Darwin

Phylogenetic trees are more accurate at describing evolutionary relationships compared to

cladograms. Phylogenetic trees are illustrated diagrams that show evolutionary relationships
between featured organisms and are based on hypotheses of how the organisms are related.
Specifically, a phylogenetic tree consists of several branches that are patterned according to how
different groups evolved from a series of common ancestors.

As discussed in the previous lesson, several taxonomic characters are used to classify organisms and
place them into their proper groups. Moreover, with the principles of evolution.

Slide 5

To do this, taxonomists and evolutionary biologists try to determine the relationship between two
organisms by observing the shared characteristics of the gathered taxonomic data:

Slide 6

Morphological Data - Examples are bone structure, body shape, or muscle patterns.

In biology, the study of the size, shape, and structure of animals, plants, and microorganisms and of
the relationships of their constituent parts. The term refers to the general aspects of biological form
and arrangement of the parts of a plant or an animal.

Genetic Data – The sequences are analyzed based on the number of similarities in the DNA base
pairs.

results from the analysis of a biological sample from the natural person in question, in particular
chromosomal, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) analysis, or from the analysis of
another element enabling equivalent information to be obtained (Recital 34, GDPR).

Behavioral Data - Behavioral data is normally combined with morphological data to construct a more
comprehensive idea of relatedness. Examples of this type of data are the presence of social structure
and specific behavioral patterns found in the species.
Slide 7

Furthermore, many comprehensive phylogenetic trees use data from all the sources mentioned
above to give a clearer view of relatedness between groups of organisms. Sample phylogenetic\

Slide 9

To completely understand the information provided by the phylogenetic tree, you must be familiar
with the different parts of a typical tree. Each part provides essential information regarding the
evolutionary relatedness of the organisms included in the analysis.

Slide 10

Root – the root of the phylogenetic tree is inferred to be the oldest point in the tree and
corresponds to the theoretical last common ancestor of all taxonomic units included in the tree. The
root gives directionality to evolution within the tree (Baldauf, 2003).

Nodes - Nodes represent diverging points i n the evolutionary history of the organism due to the
development of derived traits along the organism’s history.

A node represents a branching point from the ancestral population. Terminals occur at the topmost
part of each branch, and they are labeled by the taxa of the population represented by that branch.

Branch - It shows the positioning order of each organism within the phylogenetic tree. Branches that
come from specific nodes, for example, indicate that the organism groups at the end of the branch
are derived from the ancestor found in the node.

Slide 11

Branch Length - While for unscaled trees, the branch length does not signify any significant
information. Evolutionary time also moves forward from root to node. This means that for scaled
trees, all divergences that occurred closer to the root occurred earlier i n evolutionary time
compared to the ones that are farther from the root. 7.2.

Branch lengths indicate genetic change i.e. the longer the branch, the more genetic change (or
divergence) has occurred. Typically we measure the extent of genetic change by estimating the
average number of nucleotide or protein substitutions per site

Clade - In a phylogenetic tree, organisms that belong to similar clades tend to be more related to
one another.

A clade is a piece of a phylogeny that includes an ancestral lineage and all the descendants of that
ancestor. This group of organisms has the property of monophyly (from the Greek for "single clan"),
so it may also be referred to as a monophyletic group.
Slide 13

It is also important to take note that as one moves from the root to the external nodes of the
phylogenetic tree, the evolutionary time scale for the tree moves forward to present time. Take note
that some trees are constructed horizontally and others are constructed vertically. Make sure that
these are considered when tracing evolutionary time.

Slide 15

When it comes to the internal nodes and the branches, each node that shows the splitting of
branches shows lineage speciation due to the presence of derived traits that is present to the new
descendants and absent to the common ancestor. It is also important to note what these
divergences end with, as some trees will end indicate organism groups while others indicate single
species.

Slide 19

Overall, the similarities and the differences of each lineage with one another, together with their
common ancestors, are represented by the phylogenetic tree. It shows how each organism
represented i n the tree evolves through time and which characteristics were gained and lost across
the evolutionary part of the group

Phylogenetic tree construction can be applied to pathogenic organisms like the coronavirus (COVID-
19). Tracing the relationship of the virus with the rest of the document coronaviruses i n the past can
be useful i n understanding the origin and transmission of the disease.