Biology introduction assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Biology introduction assignment - Research Paper Example These species are found in Ontario, Canada. Under the Species at Risk Legislation of Ontario, the Northern map and the Snapping turtles are species of Special Concern while the Blanding’s and the Musk turtles are threatened. The greatest risk for these species is being run over on roads and highways. Typically, turtles look for loose, sandy soils to lay their eggs in. But because exposed soil may be difficult to find in natural habitats, turtles are attracted to the artificially-created potential nesting sites such as shoulders of roads, railroad embankments, gravel drives and earthen dams. While they get to and from such locations, the turtles become vulnerable to both vehicular traffic and predators. Genomes evolve as a result of continuous accumulation of mutations. This means that the amount of variation in nucleotide sequences in genomes indicates how recently those genomes have shared a common ancestor. If two genomes have diverged recently in the past, it is expected that they would have much fewer differences in their nucleotide sequences than two genomes whose mutual ancestor is more ancient (Tanaka & Aranishi 2013). Thus, by comparing several genomes, it is possible to figure out their evolutionary relationships. In most of the studies that use molecular markers, the predominant classes are mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite nuclear DNA. Mitochondrial DNA has an important advantage in all phylogenetic research because it is inherited from the maternal line (Chung 2013). This fact facilitates the monitoring of its transmission along the different phases, starting in the early evolution. Another advantage is that Mitochondrial DNA has a high level of variability and a hi gh rate of mutation, compared with the nuclear DNA ( Rubinoff and Holland 2005), in spite of the fact that it does not encode the information for the synthesis of many proteins. This fact makes it ideal for the