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If it won't work in bacteria, what hope is there for higher organisms??? I
predict that the signals will become less and less clear, the more we know.
Art
http://geology.swau.edu >>
PLENTY of hope, especially since known phylogenies have been reconstructed
using molecular phylogenetics methods.
Mol Biol Evol 1993 Nov;10(6):1150-69
Genetic affinities of inbred mouse strains of uncertain origin.
Atchley WR, Fitch W
". An unordered-parsimony analysis gives a cladogram that is virtually
identical to the known genealogy of the mouse strains. "
Science 1991 Oct 25;254(5031):554-8
Gene trees and the origins of inbred strains of mice.
Atchley WR, Fitch WM
"Phylogenetic analyses of 144 separate loci reproduce almost exactly the
known genealogical relationships among these 24 strains "
Science 1994 Apr 29;264(5159):671-7
Application and accuracy of molecular phylogenies.
Hillis DM, Huelsenbeck JP, Cunningham CW
"The performance of methods of phylogenetic analysis can be assessed by
numerical simulation studies and by the experimental evolution of organisms
in controlled laboratory situations. Both kinds of assessment indicate that
existing methods are effective at estimating phylogenies over a wide range of
evolutionary conditions, especially if information about substitution bias is
used to provide differential weightings for character transformations. "
There are many others. Don't make the illogical mistake of taking a
particular circumstance and extrapolating it as a field-wide weakness.