Evolution Project: Mapping evolutionary relationship

Evolution Project: Mapping evolutionary relationship
Purpose
The goal of this project is to compare a nucleotide and or protein sequence from one species with the corresponding genes/proteins in other species. This will allow us to infer the evolutionary relationship between these species.
Instructions
This project is assigned to each individual student and is not a group work. Each student is expected to work independently while completing this assignment on her/his own effort without the assistance of others and is expected to abide by University and Eberly College of Science policies about academic integrity and academic dishonesty.
This assignment is divided into two parts. Each part comes with it’s specific set of instructions and rubric.
Students will submit a single word doc for this assignment. This document should have the evolutionary trees that will be generated and include the response to the given prompts.
Number of allowed attempts is 1
Total available points 30
Part 1 Its not a mammoth task (total points 15)
Using the publicly available dataset on NCBI () search for this accession number NC_007596
Using this sequence as a query, run a BLASTN analysis against the ‘refseq_genomic’ database limited to the mammalian taxon ‘Afrotheria’.
Generate a slanted distance tree with the results and download the tree in pdf format.
Take a screen shot of the tree (from the PDF) and paste it in a word doc (maximum available 4 points).
Read the following prompts and submit your answers in the same word doc
Prompt 1.
Identify and name the query species and state its nearest and most distant relative. (maximum 3 points)
Prompt 2.
Compare the habitat, geographical distribution, and diet of the query species with its nearest and most distant relative. (maximum 3 points).
Query species
Nearest relative
Most distant relative
Habitat
Geographical distribution
diet
Prompt 3.
Provide a list of 4-5 species (other than those named in your response to Prompt 1 and Prompt 2) that are present in the distance tree. (maximum 5 points)
Rubric for Part 1
Total available points 15
Generating the correct tree (maximum points 4). Points will be deducted if the tree is not presented in the correct format.
Maximum available point 11 for prompt1-3. For points break down for each prompt see above.
Use binomial nomenclature to name the species. Please use the correct format. Points will be deducted if you do not use the correct format for binomial nomenclature.
Part 2 Finding the common ancestor (total points 15)
Using the publicly available dataset on NCBI () search for protein sequences for actin-related protein Arp2/3 fromMonosiga brevecollis(acce