Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 4, 559-571, Copyright © 1987 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
AH Bledsoe
Differences in single-copy nuclear-DNA sequences among 13 species of
passerine birds were measured using DNA-DNA hybridization. A matrix of
pairwise dissimilarity values (delta mode distances) was constructed from
analysis of fitted thermal dissociation curves. A least-squares method of
phylogenetic estimation was used to construct two topologies from the
distance matrix, one constraining branch lengths of sister taxa to be equal
and the other permitting such lengths to vary. These topologies were
identical in the pattern of branching of taxa, and the difference in their
sums of squares was not statistically significant, suggesting that rates of
DNA evolution in sister groups of nine- primaried oscines are equal. A
nonparametric test for nonrandom variation in distances of sister groups to
outgroup taxa revealed no statistically significant deviation from random
variation that would be expected as a result of measurement error. However,
the level of measurement error was such that rates of DNA evolution in
sister taxa could vary by as much as 10% without being detected with the
statistical methods used here.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
DNA evolutionary rates in nine-primaried passerine birds
Department of Biology, Yale University.
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