Question

Which of the following is incorrect statement about Molecular Markers?

(a) For studying very closely related organisms, protein sequences are preferred

(b) The decision to use nucleotide or protein sequences depends on the purposes of the study

(c) For constructing molecular phylogenetic trees, one can use either nucleotide or protein sequence data

(d) The decision to use nucleotide or protein sequences depends on the properties of the sequences

The question was asked at a job interview.

This is a very interesting question from Forms of Tree Representation in portion Molecular Phylogenetics of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

Right answer is (a) For studying very closely related organisms, protein sequences are preferred

For explanation I would say: The choice of molecular markers is an important matter because it can make a major difference in obtaining a correct tree. For studying very closely related organisms, nucleotide sequences, which evolve more rapidly than proteins, can be used. For example, for evolutionary analysis of different individuals within a population, noncoding regions of mitochondrial DNA are often used.