Assessing Clade Wise Concordance between Phylogenetic Trees and Corresponding Taxonomic Trees

Darwin [1], used morphological characters or polygenic traits to describe the hierarchy in complexity among related and distant species although he was unaware of the source of variation. Only later, after the discovery of Mendel’s laws explained that the genetic variations are generated by mutations. Speciation is based on the analysis of the extent of similarity among a wide variety of morphological, physiological, biochemical, genetic, behavioral traits [2] allows establishment of evolutionary relationship among organisms that are expressed in form of phylogenetic trees that mimic taxonomic trees. However, a phylogenetic tree based on comparison of a monogenic trait such as specific gene/ polypeptide sequences differs from that based on morphological and functional phenotypes/traits that are necessarily polygenic and represent consensus topology.