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Starting Tree of Life II (Advanced) Science Project
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deleted-306198
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Starting Tree of Life II (Advanced) Science Project
i am trying to find an "old" evolutionary tree to start the tree of life II (advanced) project. please help me my project deadline is coming up in less than a week!!
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SciB
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- Project Question: I wish to join Scibuddies to be able to help students achieve the best science project possible and to understand the science behind it.
- Project Due Date: n/a
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Re: Starting Tree of Life II (Advanced) Science Project
Hi,
The goal of the Tree of Life project (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p001.shtml) as stated in the summary is:
"The goal of this science project is to compare a protein's amino acid sequence in a couple of animals to infer how closely related they are to one another. You have access to the same online genomics databases and software that scientists use every day. You can select a few animals you are interested in and find a protein common to all of them using information you can find online. Then you can use an online software tool to line those proteins up and compare the sequences. The more similar the amino acid sequence of the protein, the more closely related the two species are!"
The animals you choose should span a range of types from simple--worms and insects--to complex--mammals, including humans.
The harder part is choosing what protein to compare. For example, if you picked hemoglobin, you would be able to compare the forms of the protein in fish, frogs, birds, and mammals but I don't think insects or worms have hemoglobin. They might have some protein that is related to hemoglobin, however, and it could be interesting to look for that.
Proteins have what are called domains. These are 'parts' of the protein that do specific things like catalyze a reaction, bind a substrate or dimerize with another protein or vitamin. By assembling these parts in different ways, proteins can be made that have different properties although they may share some of the same parts. When you do the comparison, you can use different parts of the protein's amino acid sequence rather than the whole sequence.
I hope this helps you get started. Let us know when you have more questions.
Sybee
The goal of the Tree of Life project (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p001.shtml) as stated in the summary is:
"The goal of this science project is to compare a protein's amino acid sequence in a couple of animals to infer how closely related they are to one another. You have access to the same online genomics databases and software that scientists use every day. You can select a few animals you are interested in and find a protein common to all of them using information you can find online. Then you can use an online software tool to line those proteins up and compare the sequences. The more similar the amino acid sequence of the protein, the more closely related the two species are!"
The animals you choose should span a range of types from simple--worms and insects--to complex--mammals, including humans.
The harder part is choosing what protein to compare. For example, if you picked hemoglobin, you would be able to compare the forms of the protein in fish, frogs, birds, and mammals but I don't think insects or worms have hemoglobin. They might have some protein that is related to hemoglobin, however, and it could be interesting to look for that.
Proteins have what are called domains. These are 'parts' of the protein that do specific things like catalyze a reaction, bind a substrate or dimerize with another protein or vitamin. By assembling these parts in different ways, proteins can be made that have different properties although they may share some of the same parts. When you do the comparison, you can use different parts of the protein's amino acid sequence rather than the whole sequence.
I hope this helps you get started. Let us know when you have more questions.
Sybee
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deleted-291762
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Re: Starting Tree of Life II (Advanced) Science Project
Hello!
On the Experimental Procedure section on the Procedure tab of the following link, it states that "A pre-1995 text book is one good place to find a non-molecular biology evolutionary tree." Try seeing if you can find one there to help you form your hypothesis. Then you can begin to design your experiment using the information Sybee has provided. Please let us know if you have more questions!
Link: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure
Regards,
Surya
On the Experimental Procedure section on the Procedure tab of the following link, it states that "A pre-1995 text book is one good place to find a non-molecular biology evolutionary tree." Try seeing if you can find one there to help you form your hypothesis. Then you can begin to design your experiment using the information Sybee has provided. Please let us know if you have more questions!
Link: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure
Regards,
Surya