OEB 192 – 08.09.24 “Evolutionary speculation constitutes a kind of metascience, which has the same intellectual fascination for some biologists that metaphysical.

OEB 192 – 08.09.24

“Evolutionary speculation constitutes a kind of metascience, which has the same intellectual fascination for some biologists that metaphysical speculation possessed for some mediaeval scholastics. It can be considered a relatively harmless habit, like eating peanuts, unless it assumes the form of an obsession; then it becomes a vice” (Stanier, 1970)

Tree of Life: primary divisions

Microbial systematics

• Formerly Pseudomonas (partial list): Ralstonia, Burkholderia, Hydrogenophaga, Sphingomonas, Methylobacterium, Cellvibrio, Xanthomonas, Acidovorax, Hydrogenophillus, Brevundimonas, Pandoraea

multi-C C1(& all use methanol)

16S rRNA as phylogenetic marker• Why a good molecule?

Tree of Life: three “domains”• Based on 16S rRNA (Woese, 1987):

Tree of Life: three “domains”• Based on 16S rRNA (Pace, 1997):

Tree basics: meaning

Tree basics: rotation

Tree basics: shape

Tree basics: character change

Key phylogenetic terms

Key phylogenetic terms

Monday (9/14): Molecular evolution and horizontal gene transfer I.