Managing Taxa With Groups

Ex 7.0.1: Start MEGA by double-clicking on the MEGA desktop icon, or by using the Windows start-menu to click on the MEGA icon located in the programs folder.

Ex 7.0.2: Activate the data present in the Crab_rRNA.meg file by using the File|Open command.

We will now examine how to define and edit groups of taxa.

Ex 7.1.2: Select the Data|Setup/Select Taxa & Groups menu command.

Ex 7.1.3: Press the “New Group” button found below the Taxa/Groups pane to add a new group to the data. Name this new group “Pagurus.”

Ex 7.1.4: While holding the Control button on the keyboard, click on all of the Pagurus species in the Ungrouped Taxa pane to highlight them. When they are all highlighted, press the left-facing arrow button found on the vertical toolbar between the two windowpanes.

Ex 7.1.5: Select the “All” group in the Taxa/Groups pane and press the “New Group” button to add a second group. Name this group “Non-Pagurus.” Add the remaining unassigned taxa to this group and press the “Close” button at the bottom of the window to exit this view.

Ex 7.1.6: Now that groups have been defined, the Compute Within Group Mean, Compute Between Group Means, and Compute Net Between Group Means menu commands from the Distance menu item may be used to analyze the data.