Question

Parsimony can give ________ information when rates of sequence change _______ in the different branches of a tree that are represented by the sequence data.

(a) misleading, vary

(b) useful, change

(c) misleading, are constant

(d) sometimes contradicting, are constant

I had been asked this question in an interview.

The above asked question is from Maximum Parsimony Method in section Phylogenetic Tree Construction Methods and Programs of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

Correct choice is (a) misleading, vary

Best explanation: These variations produce a range of branch lengths, long ones representing more extended periods of time and short ones representing shorter times. Although other columns in the sequence alignment that show less variation may provide the correct tree, the columns representing greater variation dominate the analysis.