A short guide to phylogeny reconstruction

Abstract

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.