Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment University College London, Darwin Building Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
Evodevo. 2013 Feb 12;4(1):5. doi: 10.1186/2041-9139-4-5.
On 12 February 1988 (by coincidence Charles Darwin's birthday), a paper published in Science by Katherine Field, Rudy Raff, and colleagues presented the first credible molecular analysis of metazoan phylogeny based on sequences from the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU). Here I examine the main conclusions reached in this manuscript. I reconstitute their dataset and, by recompiling software available in 1988, I consider how they might have achieved a more accurate tree. I show how three common methods to avoid systematic error - more data, careful taxon sampling and superior models of evolution - overcome the errors that exist in the original paper. This approach illustrates the basis of some of the major advances of the past 25 years resulting in our current understanding of animal phylogeny.
1988 年 2 月 12 日（巧合的是查尔斯·达尔文的生日），凯瑟琳·菲尔德（Katherine Field）、鲁迪·拉夫（Rudy Raff）和同事们在《科学》杂志上发表的一篇论文，基于小亚基核糖体 RNA 基因（SSU）的序列，首次对后生动物系统发育进行了可信的分子分析。在这里，我检查了这篇论文中的主要结论。我重新构建了他们的数据，并通过重新编译 1988 年可用的软件，考虑了他们如何可能获得更准确的树。我展示了三种常见的方法如何避免系统误差——更多的数据、仔细的分类群采样和更高级的进化模型——克服了原始论文中存在的错误。这种方法说明了过去 25 年取得的一些重大进展的基础，这些进展导致了我们目前对动物系统发育的理解。
