Investigating Bear Ancestry: Taxonomic Relationships of Polar and Panda Bears

Investigating Bear Ancestry:Taxonomic Relationships of Polar and Panda Bears

Objectives Analyze ancestry/phylogeny of: - Polar Bear - American Brown Bear - American Black Bear - Giant Panda - Red Panda - and other bears

To Explore Ancestry and Evolutionary History • Anatomical comparisons • Ecology and Life History • Molecular Analysis

Evolutionary History:Molecular Analyses • Use amino acid (protein) sequences - Hemoglobin - Cytochrome B • Use DNA sequences - Nuclear DNA - Mitochondrial DNA * 12s ribosomal RNA gene

Mitochondrion

What is a Mitochondrion? • Extensive Membrane Network - Electron Transport System - Matrix – Citric Acid Cycle Enzymes

What is a Mitochondrion? • Semiautonomous, descendents of bacteria - have own DNA, RNA - have own ribosomes - carry out replication, transcription, translation

Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA Shows Maternal Inheritance

To obtain 12s ribosomal RNA nucleotide sequences Go to: NCBI ww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Select “Nucleotide” and Type Accession Number (listed in handout

Select FASTA in Display window and select organism

Copy the nucleotide sequence into a word document Repeat with other accession number

When finished • Save: • Bears.doc Save AS  Format: Text file If successful, file name should end in: mybears.txt

Acsess Biology WorkbenchHttp://workbench.sdsc.edu Register (REMEMBER Password)

Log on

Layout of Workbench

Scrolling Down …

Go to “Session Tools”

Select :Nucleic Tools” • “Add New Nucleotide Sequences” • Click “Run”

Copy, Paste, Edit Nucleotide Sequences and then “Save”….. Repeat 4 Times

Select these Bear sequences to start with….. • Find and Select CLUSTAL W • Click “Run”

1. Select “Submit” Select Unrooted Tree

Nucleotide Sequence Alignment Comparison

A Phylogram

Continue and add other animals.

Investigating Bear Ancestry: Taxonomic Relationships of Polar and Panda Bears