REU: Properties and Capabilities of DNA/DNA Hybridization as a Systematic Method in Ornithology

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The technique of DNA-DNA hybridization can be used to measure genetic similarity between species; DNA hybridizes more extensively among closely related species than among distantly related species. This technique has been used to reconstruct the phylogenetic history of some groups of animals and plants; for example, DNA-DNA hybridization, along with other molecular techniques, has shown that humans are very closely related to the chimp. DNA-DNA hybridization has also been used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of birds. This research will resolve a number of technical and theoretical questions regarding the application of DNA-DNA hybridization to the measure of genetic distance between species, its ability to resolve relationships at low levels in the systematic hierarchy, and the reconstruction of evolutionary history. These questions will be addressed in context of an analysis of the evolutionary histories of two families of birds, one containing the herons and bitterns and the other the swallows and martins. These are both important avian groups with puzzling evolutionary histories.