TESTING THE USE OF XRCC6 GENE IN PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSES

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, we investigated the potential use of the XRCC6 gene in the construction of phylogenetic trees used to visualise evolutionary relationships among species. XRCC6 gene is an important evolutionarily conserved gene that plays a role in DNA repair processes [1, 2]. The phylogenetic tree constructed with the XRCC6 gene using the Neighbour-Joining (NJ) algorithm was compared with the phylogenetic tree previously constructed with the UPGMA algorithm using mtDNA sequences. As a result of the comparison, it was observed that the trees constructed by both algorithms overlapped to a great extent in terms of topological similarity, support values of branches and species position. These findings indicate that XRCC6 gene can be used as a reliable genetic marker in phylogenetic analyses. The use of XRCC6 gene in phylogenetic analyses may contribute to a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of evolutionary relationships.