title: Is it possible to construct phylogenetic trees using polypeptide hormone sequences?
abstract: Because of the high degree of primary sequence conservation in neuropeptides and low molecular weight polypeptide hormones, these polypeptides are not useful for constructing phylogenetic trees based on maximum parsimony analysis. This review focuses on the organization of neuropeptide and polypeptide hormone precursors and discusses strategies for aligning polypeptide precursors for phylogenetic analysis. Examples are provided to support the hypothesis that some neuropeptide and polypeptide precursors and some high molecular weight polypeptide hormones can be used as data sets for resolving deep divergences among vertebrate taxa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Denver, Colorado 80208, USA.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Dores
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Quinn
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006728:Hormones / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones; D010455:Peptides