Question

Discuss the usefulness of topology and branch length when reading phylogenetic trees. Given a tree, represent its topology using parenthetical notation. Be able to identify trees of different style or arrangement that share a common topology.

Answer 1

Topology is the branch-like structure of the cladogram or tree of evolution. It shows the relatedness among different taxa of the taxonomy. It has significance in the biological evolutionary studies. It shows similarities in the genotype and phenotype of the organisms.

Branch lengths are also important to the phylogenetic studies as it is proportional to the evolutionary time or change to the particular event so the branch length helps in analyzing the number of changes that have taken place in the DNA sequence of a particular lineage.