Question

Which would be the best choice, from only the options below, to determine the evolutionary relationship between two unknown self-replicating organisms (Think about what criteria were needed to accurately assess evolutionary relationships):

Group of answer choices

Nucleic acid sequence of a cell wall protein

RNA dependent RNA polymerase gene

DNA sequence of a DNA polymerase gene

amino acid sequence of a flagellar protein

mRNA sequence of a membrane protein

Answer 1

Answer is- Nucleic acid sequence of a cell wall protein.

Evolutionary relationship are characterized based on the nucleic acid sequences. The nucleic acid sequences differ due to single nucleotide polymorphisms, substitution (transition and transversion), etc. These leads to change in nucleic acid sequences but not in amino acid sequence (due to degeneracy of codons).

RNA dependent RNA polymerase is not present in all self replicating organisms.

DNA sequence of DNA polymerase gene remain evolutionary conserved in most of the organisms. This gene faces very less mutations. Thus, evolutionary relationship can not be established with this gene.