You are studying the relationships among a group of 10 cichlid fishes that have speciated very recently (say the last 5,000 years). Would you choose to use intron or exon sequences in your phylogenetic analysis? Explain your answer.
Answer: Intron sequences
Explanation: Exon sequences are functionally significant. So, it would generally take a long time for mutations and diversification in exon sequences. They do not change rapidly as selection pressure is exerted on them.
However, intron sequences are non-coding. So, they are not functionally significant (other than sites that are involved in splicing and gene regulation). So, intron sequences can develop/show sequence variation within few generations. They do change rapidly as there is no selection pressure on them.
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