Bioinformatics Lab Report free essay sample

Using a cladistic approach, we constructed a hypothetical phylogenetic tree of many different plant taxa by comparing their morphologies. We first decided to sort the various types of plants into groups based on morphological features. After sorting these plants into five different groups we began to determine how the plants differed from eachother in the group and what features set them apart. From this we started to create the hypothetical tree and decided to put aquatic plants at the start of the tree, as its most commonly believed life orginated in the ocean. We then put the other plants into various categories on the tree based upon the morphologies that set them apart from the others. A comparison of the hypothetical phylogeny and the calculate phylogeny: Many of the plants we put into groups using the cladistic approach were similarally matched from the phenetic approach. From our hypothetical tree we had one main branch and then subdivided the plants into five various groups. We will write a custom essay sample on Bioinformatics Lab Report or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In the calculated tree it had two main branches and many subdivided categories for the various morphologies. Most of the groups we used to seperate the plants from morphological features when creating the hypothetical tree could still be applied for grouping methods in the calculated tree (such as whether the plants were aquatic, could produce flowers, etc ). The only two plants that we mistakenly grouped together (from the cladistic approach) was Polypodium and Equisetum believing they both had spores and put them in the same group. However this was not the case and using the phenetic approach we could follow it back and see that Polypodium is land based and that Equisetum is water based and that both were in their own groups. Cladistic vs. Phenetic approach (advantages and disadvantages): One of the main advantages of using the cladisitic approach is that it can asily be created just by the sorting of various morpoholigcal features and can give a quick sketch for recreating pylogenies. However from this approach it can be prone to any errors made and is not as accurate as the phenetic approach. The main advantage of the phenetic approach lies in its accuracy and can more accurately sort organisms into groups based on data for their phylogenies. The disadvantage from this is that it requires alot of data and can not be as easily produced in the field like the cladistic approach.