Figure 7-108. A phylogenetic tree showing the relationship between the human and the great apes based on nucleotide sequence data.

Figure 7-108A phylogenetic tree showing the relationship between the human and the great apes based on nucleotide sequence data

As indicated, the sequences of the genomes of all four species are estimated to differ from the sequence of the genome of their last common ancestor by a little over 1.5%. Because changes occur independently on both diverging lineages, pairwise comparisons reveal twice the sequence divergence from the last common ancestor. For example, human-orangutan comparisons typically show sequence divergences of a little over 3%, while human-chimpanzee comparisons show divergences of approximately 1.2%. (Modified from F.-C. Chen and W.-H. Li, Am. J. Hum. Genet. 68:444–456, 2001.)

From: How Genomes Evolve

Cover of Molecular Biology of the Cell
Molecular Biology of the Cell. 4th edition.
Alberts B, Johnson A, Lewis J, et al.
New York: Garland Science; 2002.
Copyright © 2002, Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, and Peter Walter; Copyright © 1983, 1989, 1994, Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, and James D. Watson .

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