INFOGRAPHIC 16.7 RELATED ORGANISMS SHARE DNA SEQUENCES
Related organisms share DNA sequences inherited from a common ancestor. Over time, the sequence in each species acquires independent mutations. The more time that has passed, the greater the number of sequence differences that will be present. Thus, the percentage of nucleotides that differ between two species gives an indication of the evolutionary distance between them.
Related organisms share DNA sequences inherited from a common ancestor. Over time, the sequence in each species acquires independent mutations. The more time that has passed, the greater the number of sequence differences that will be present. Thus, the percentage of nucleotides that differ between two species gives an indication of the evolutionary distance between them.
SOURCE: Data for the CFTR coding region from Thomas, J. W., et ai. (2003) Comparative analyses of muiti-species sequences from targeted genomic regions. Nature 424:788–893.