Title:      Exploration of the Palaeoptera Problem

Author: Jessica Litman

Abstract:

Although attempts have been made to resolve what has become known as the Palaeoptera problem (the uncertain placement of the Ephemeroptera and Odonata with respect to the rest of the winged insects on the phylogeny of the class Insecta), the solution remains elusive.  Both 18S and 28S rDNA sequences have been analyzed in the past in an effort to solve the Palaeoptera problem but never under the principles of secondary structure manual alignment.  Existing 18S and 28S datasets taken from the Ephemeroptera, Odonata and Neoptera will be analyzed using the secondary structure of ribosomal DNA as a means of aligning the sequences.  The results from these analyses and their impact on the resolution of the Palaeoptera problem will be discussed during the presentation of this study.