A short guide to phylogeny reconstruction

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Authors	MICHU Elleni
Year of publication	2007
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Plant, Soil and Environment
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Science
Citation
Web	http://www.cazv.cz/static.asp?str=rv&ch=54&ids=765
Field	Genetics and molecular biology
Keywords	sequence alignment; phylogenetic analysis; neighbor-joining; maximum parsimony; maximum likelihood; Bayesian inference
Description	This review is a short introduction to phylogenetic analysis. Phylogenetic analysis allows comprehensive understanding of the origin and evolution of species. Generally, it is possible to construct the phylogenetic trees according to different features and characters (e.g. morphological and anatomical characters, RAPD patterns, FISH patterns, sequences of DNA/RNA and amino acid sequences). The DNA sequences are preferable for phylogenetic analyses of closely related species. On the other hand, the amino acid sequences are used for phylogenetic analyses of more distant relationships. The sequences can be analysed using many computer programs. The methods most often used for phylogenetic analyses are neighbor-joining (NJ), maximum parsimony (MP), maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference.