形态性状、分子性状与同源性

“同源性（homology）”是生物学中最基本的概念之一。近年来，随着分子生物学、生物信息学、发育生物学以及进化发育遗传学等学科的快速发展，同源性一词在形态性状的比较、核苷酸和氨基酸序列的分析以及探讨形态性状进化的分子机制等方面都有广泛应用。然而，由于不同的研究者对同源性概念的理解有所不同，在实际应用中难免会出现不恰当使用“同源性”一词并得出错误结论的情况。本文从不同的角度介绍了如何对同源性进行判断以及影响同源性判断的因素。并指出正确理解同源性这一概念的含义，以及通过综合各方面的证据对同源性进行推断对于揭示基因型和表型的进化以及二者之间的关系非常重要。

Morphology, Molecules, and Homology

Homology is one of the fundamental concepts in biology. Recent advances in molecular biology, bioinformatics, developmental biology and evodevotics have led to the wide use of the concept in comparing morphological characters, analyzing molecular sequences, and exploring the molecular basis of the evolution of morphological features. However, because researchers have divergent opinions about the definition of homology, in practice this term is usually used incorrectly, and, thus some false conclusions are drawn. Here, we show how to infer homology and reveal some factors that affect homology. We also point out that the implications of homology should be understood correctly and that homology should be inferred by combining many kinds of evidence to reveal the evolution of genotypes and phenotypes and the relationship between them.