Median Networks: A visual representation of ancient Adelie Penguin DNA
by
Barbara Holland
Massey University
Coauthors: David Lambert (Massey University), Peter Ritche (Massey University)

Massey biologists David Lambert and Peter Ritche have gathered a data set consisting of mitochondrial DNA sequences from over 300 Adelie penguins. In addition to this they succeeded in recovering DNA from over 70 ancient bones preserved beneath the Antarctic permafrost. This provides a unique data set that can be used to directly measure the rate of mtDNA evolution. Median Networks are a useful tool for visualising the structure in mtDNA data sets. In this talk I will explain how the median network was constructed and how how it can be used to measure the rate of sequence evolution.

Date received: October 19, 2000

Copyright © 2000 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caek-71.