Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons02:54

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

7.1K
Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
7.1K
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?02:05

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

8.2K
The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...
8.2K
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?02:05

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

3.7K
3.7K
Synteny and Evolution02:31

Synteny and Evolution

3.8K
John H. Renwick first coined the term “synteny” in 1971, which refers to the genes present on the same chromosomes, even if they are not genetically linked. The species with common ancestry tend to show conserved syntenic regions. Therefore, the concept of synteny is nowadays used to describe the evolutionary relationship between species.
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral...
3.8K
Phylogeny01:23

Phylogeny

62.7K
Phylogeny is concerned with the evolutionary diversification of organisms or groups of organisms. A group of organisms with a name is called a taxon (singular). Taxa (plural) can span different levels of the evolutionary hierarchy. For instance, the group containing all birds is a taxon (comprising the class Aves), and the group of all species of daisies (the genus Bellis) is a taxon. Phylogenies can likewise include just one genus (i.e., depict species relationships) or span an entire kingdom.
62.7K
Multi-species Conserved Sequences02:51

Multi-species Conserved Sequences

4.9K
Next-generation sequencing technologies have created large genomic databases of a variety of animals and plants. Ever since the human genome project was completed, scientists studied the genome of primates, mammals, and other phylogenetically distant living beings. Such large-scale  studies have provided new insights into the evolutionary relationship between organisms.
Although the genome of each species varies greatly from each other, a few sequences are highly conserved. Such conserved...
4.9K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Geospatial Access to Pediatric Cardiac and Cardiac-Surgical Services by Neighborhood-Level Determinants of Health.

Journal of the American Heart Association·2026
Same author

Dampened inflammation and reduced risk of osteoarthritis among non-industrialized societies.

Osteoarthritis and cartilage·2025
Same author

Geospatial Accessibility of Pediatric Resources by Child Opportunity, Racial and Ethnic Composition and Urbanicity.

Academic pediatrics·2025
Same author

Foot arch height, arch stiffness, and intrinsic muscle size are not strongly associated with daily physical activity levels in a cross-sectional study of adults in the United States.

Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007)·2025
Same author

Apparent Stasis of Endocranial Volume in Two Chimpanzee Subspecies.

American journal of biological anthropology·2024
Same author

Reply to RJ Klement.

The American journal of clinical nutrition·2023

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 18, 2026

An Integrated Approach for Microprotein Identification and Sequence Analysis
09:37

An Integrated Approach for Microprotein Identification and Sequence Analysis

Published on: July 12, 2022

4.0K

Selection of Character Coding Method Is Not Phylogenetically Neutral: A Test Case Using Hominoids.

Steven Worthington1

  • 1Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Folia Primatologica; International Journal of Primatology
|November 14, 2017
PubMed
Summary

Phylogenetic inference is sensitive to how continuous data is coded. Analyzing continuous characters without prior discretization is recommended to avoid biased evolutionary hypotheses in morphological data analysis.

Keywords:
Character codingHominoid phylogenyMorphological systematicsPhylogenetic inferencePrimary homology

More Related Videos

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin
08:57

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Published on: August 14, 2018

16.6K
A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts
12:00

A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts

Published on: February 5, 2014

36.2K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Feb 18, 2026

An Integrated Approach for Microprotein Identification and Sequence Analysis
09:37

An Integrated Approach for Microprotein Identification and Sequence Analysis

Published on: July 12, 2022

4.0K
Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin
08:57

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Published on: August 14, 2018

16.6K
A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts
12:00

A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts

Published on: February 5, 2014

36.2K

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Phylogenetics
  • Systematics

Background:

  • Phylogenetic inference from morphological data requires numerous analytical choices.
  • Decisions made during phylogenetic analysis, such as character selection and state delimitation, can significantly influence tree inference.
  • The transformation of continuously scaled variables into categorical traits is a critical, yet often overlooked, step.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify the impact of different methods for transforming continuous variables into categorical traits on phylogenetic inference.
  • To assess the sensitivity of phylogenetic hypotheses to character coding strategies using extant hominoids as a model system.
  • To provide recommendations for robust phylogenetic analyses of morphological data.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized extant hominoids as a case study for phylogenetic analysis.
  • Quantified the influence of various methods for discretizing continuously scaled morphological variables.
  • Compared resulting phylogenetic branching patterns and character state identities across different coding strategies.

Main Results:

  • Character coding strategies significantly impact hypotheses of character state identity.
  • The choice of method for discretizing continuous data demonstrably affects phylogenetic branching patterns.
  • Different approaches to transforming continuous variables yield divergent evolutionary hypotheses.

Conclusions:

  • Phylogenetic hypotheses derived from morphological data are highly sensitive to the chosen character coding methods.
  • Prior discretization of continuously scaled characters can introduce bias into evolutionary inference.
  • Recommends analyzing continuously scaled characters without prior discretization to ensure unbiased phylogenetic hypotheses.