Teacher Notes: “MOLECULAR SEQUENCES & PRIMATE EVOLUTION:
AN AMINO ACID EXAMPLE”
Overview and concepts
Overview
In this activity students will used macromolecular data to construct a cladogram of 7 primate species and 1
non-primate species. This will convey to students the idea that monophyleticism in both the recent and the
more distant past can be inferred from macromolecular data. Likewise, this activity has been adapted from
a paper-based activity; it is intended to introduce into level biology students to the idea of bioinformatics.
Students will compare and analyze amino acid sequences using NCBI’s BLAST tool.
Grade level
Grades 10-11.
Concepts covered
Biological/evolutionary relationship, descent by modification, common ancestor, protein, amino acid,
bioinformatics, cladistics.
Prior knowledge required:
Protein structure and function
Proteins as a translated gene product
Biological organization
Learning Objectives:
 Use macromolecular data to determine potential evolutionary relationship and common ancestry?
 Use analysis tools that contemporary biologists would use to conduct such an inquiry?
Activity notes
Time frame: About two 50 minute class periods.
 Pre-lab discussion. Discuss hemoglobin structure & function. Discuss use of BLAST: 15 minutes in
class.
 Complete activity, students will analyze data on BLAST, fill in worksheets A and B, answer questions
in lab protocol, and write a final summarizing paragraph: 70 minutes.
 Final summarizing paragraph: Homework, depending upon time requirements.
 Wrap-up discussion, discuss results, interpretation of data, and use of bioinformatics tools: 15
minutes.
Teaching Tips
 Students should not begin the activity with all of the student materials. Distribute as follows:
 Begin with ‘Procedure’ and ‘Worksheet A’
 Distribute ‘Worksheet B’ to students only when they request it. They will be prompted to
ask for it in section E of the procedure.
 As such, copy the procedure as one packet and worksheets A and B each as separate worksheets.
 If possible, the data sheet should be made available to students electronically. This will assist in
their loading the amino acid sequences into BLAST.
 Emphasize that students will have to make a significant number of comparisons using BLAST, each
species must be compared with every other species. If working in groups, students may wish to
divide up this task.


Likewise, it may be helpful to demonstrate the use of BLAST, especially if a smart board and/or LCD
projector is available to project the BLAST tool for full class viewing.
It is also helpful to conduct a final review of the activity, generally after students have submitted
their work or after it has been evaluated and returned. In this review emphasize the results and
how these suggest the idea of relationship by common ancestry.
Extensions
 Have students use NCBI search tools to find all or some of the amino acid sequences themselves
and then align the sequences themselves using BLAST according to lab protocol.
 Have students research and select another amino acid sequence to use in constructing an
additional cladogram with as many of these organisms as possible. Discuss the reality of multiple
sources of information being used to construct cladograms.
 Have students compare all eight amino acid sequences in one alignment in order to discuss protein
structure, conserved regions, and redundancy in the genetic code.
Resources
 Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes, based at Indiana University. Included similar
activities, including the original version of the activity from which this has been adapted.
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/
 Understanding Evolution from the University of California Museum of Paleontology, a good
resource for tutorials on many facets of evolutionary theory, including common ancestry.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/home.php
 The National Center for Biotechnology Information, the National Library of Medicine’s collection of
bioinformatic and genetic search and comparison tools, including BLAST.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
Acknowledgments
These teacher notes and resources were produced by Ray Mount based upon the following resources:
Craig Nelson & Martin Nickels, Edited by Larry Flammer. MOLECULAR SEQUENCES &
PRIMATE EVOLUTION: Amino Acid Differences in Beta Hemoglobins in Primates. The current
activity is an adapted version of the Nelson & Nickels activity, which is a paper-based activity. The
original Nelson & Nickels activity can be found here:
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/mol.prim.html