Systematics in The Books Store

Molecular Systematics includes chapters on sampling design, the collection and storage of tissues, each of the major molecular techniques, and intraspecific and phylogenetic analysis. The sampling chapters describe how to plan a study and how to collect, transport, and store the appropriate tissues for each study. The techniques chapters cover principles, assumptions, applications, limitations, and protocols for isozyme electrophoresis, molecular cytogenetics, DNA hybridization, the polymerase chain reaction, restriction site and fragment analysis, and nucleic acid sequencing and alignment. Advantages and disadvantages of alternative approaches are discussed for each technique, and recent developments (such as new methods of fluorescent in situ hybridization, rapid screening methods for detecting DNA sequence variation, automated sequencing methods, new approaches for PCR, and microsatellite analyses) are detailed. Three additional chapters cover the rationale and methodology of molecular data analysis at both the population and interspecific levels, and provide information on using and obtaining the relevant computer programs (including the many programs available for free across the Internet). The chapter on phylogenetic analysis has been considerably expanded to include the latest developments in maximum likelihood analysis, spectral analysis, methods for reconstructing reticulating networks, corrections for complex models of sequence evolution, and methods for assessing confidence in phylogenetic results. The book also includes discussion of processes of molecular evolution, experimental molecular studies, molecular simulations, the molecular meaning of homology, and limitations and applications of the molecular clock hypothesis.

It provides readers with guidance on how a specific complex biological question may be tackled:

• How to formulate questions that can be answered
• Which experiments to perform
• Where to find information in databases and on the Internet
• What kinds of models are appropriate
• How to use simulation tools
• What can be learned from the comparison of experimental data and modeling results
• How to make testable predictions

Collaborative research in bioinformatics and systems biology is a key element of modern biology and health research. This book highlights and provides access to many of the methods, environments, results and resources involved, including integral laboratory data generation and experimentation and clinical activities. Collaborative projects embody a research paradigm that connects many of the top scientists, institutions, their resources and research worldwide, resulting in first-class contributions to bioinformatics and systems biology. Central themes include describing processes and results in collaborative research projects using computational biology and providing a guide for researchers to access them.

The book is also a practical guide on how science is managed. It shows how collaborative researchers are putting results together in a way accessible to the entire biomedical community.

Systematics, the study of the reconstruction of the history of life, forms the underlying basis for organizing the knowledge of biology; cladistics is the diagrammatic method of charting phylogenetic relationships over time among evolving life forms. Cladistics analysis, the key tool used in this book, is also of great use outside pure systematic studies, and interests many students of population biology, ecology, epidemiology, and natural resources.