Question

In many cases ______ sequences are preferable to ______ sequences because they are relatively ____ conserved.

(a) protein, nucleotide, less

(b) nucleotide, protein, less

(c) protein, nucleotide, more

(d) nucleotide, protein, more

This question was addressed to me in my homework.

This key question is from Forms of Tree Representation topic in portion Molecular Phylogenetics of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

Correct answer is (c) protein, nucleotide, more

To explain I would say: Protein sequences are preferable to nucleotide sequences because protein sequences are relatively more conserved as a result of the degeneracy of the genetic code in which sixty-one codons encode for twenty amino acids, meaning thereby a change in a codon may not result in a change in amino acid.