7.1. Outline

• We initiate the topic by defining molecular evolution and phylogenetics.

• We then discuss basic data types required to conduct molecular evolutionary analyses.

• We introduce the Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution, the foundation theory for understanding genetic variation within and between species.

• We discuss mutation, one of the major evolutionary forces and the origin of all genetic novelty.

• We introduce the statistical models that seek to describe sequence divergence, including the main mathematical objects in these models.

• We develop intuition about how the statistical models relate to biological processes.

• We discuss how these statistical models are applied to testing hypotheses.