I have a question to systematicists concerning
molecular sequences and it's application in
cladistic analyses. The question is as follows:
Has anyone ever been able to prove anything in
a true cladistic analysis with sequence data
from proteins or DNA? I'm not interested in talk
about molecular clocks and what they are presumed
to have proved concerning the relationships of
different taxa, only in true cladistics. What
I want to see with my own eyes are unique sequences
in DNA or proteins (not single substitutions of
an amino acid or a base pair) shared by the taxa
you want group together, while the other candidates
for inclusion into this group have the primitive
sequence as determined by outgroup comparison. To
you who knows anything about this, please include in
your reply to this forum (if it's not to much work)
a short list of articles or data bases where I can
find such data as described above.
If you belive that the genom of an organism ultimatly
controls the sequences of all proteins, and therefore
the signals that determines what an organism is, and
you also have a basic grasp of cladistics (and of course
belives in evolution) you must also belive that sequence
data from proteins and DNA can be used in a cladistic
analysis. "shared derived sequences" must exist. The
tricky business is to find them among the billions of
base pairs in a genom.
Have they been found? I want to know!
Thank you for your attention!
Ludvig Mortberg
Umea, Sweden
