Phylogeny

AP Biology· difficulty 2/5

A student BLASTs a human cytochrome c protein against five other species. The table shows percent identity of each match.

Species % Identity Chimpanzee 100 Mouse 91 Chicken 88 Tuna 85 Yeast 63

Which inference is best supported?

  • A

    Humans share a more recent common ancestor with chimpanzees than with yeast.

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  • B

    Yeast and humans evolved cytochrome c independently.

  • C

    Tuna are more closely related to chickens than to mice.

  • D

    Mouse cytochrome c is functionally identical to human cytochrome c.

Explanation

Greater sequence similarity correlates with more recent common ancestry. Chimpanzee at 100 percent indicates the closest relationship; yeast at 63 percent is the most distant.

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