>>I have read some papers where analysis of cytochrome b protein was used for phylogenetic analysis. Ok so far, but I do not really understand which characters of the cytochrome b make specimens distinguishable. Could someone please give me a hint on this?

Hi Wulf,

First, the sequence you showed was of the DNA gene, not the protein.

Second, there is nothing special about cytochrome b, it is simly one of a number of genes encoded in the mirochondrial DNA of animals that is used very regularly for phylogenetic analysis. In any case, the analysis of the sequence information would be the same for other genes.

Third, the phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA sequences is a huge field of research, and there are a large number of (computerised) methods for doing it (forget about counting differences by hand), and even more bits of software that will do it for you.

The best introduction to it is most probably the following book:
Page, R.D.M. & E.C. Holmes. 1998. Molecular Evolution. A Phylogenetic Approach. Blackwell Science, Oxford.

If you have some sequences that you want to play around with (e.g., of GenBank), probably the most user-friedly program for a simple analysis is MEGA, which you can obtain for free from the link below.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Wolfgang
MEGA


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