Tracing evolutionary links between species
Populations and Evolution
2014-02-18 v1
Abstract
The idea that all life on earth traces back to a common beginning dates back at least to Charles Darwin's {\em Origin of Species}. Ever since, biologists have tried to piece together parts of this `tree of life' based on what we can observe today: fossils, and the evolutionary signal that is present in the genomes and phenotypes of different organisms. Mathematics has played a key role in helping transform genetic data into phylogenetic (evolutionary) trees and networks. Here, I will explain some of the central concepts and basic results in phylogenetics, which benefit from several branches of mathematics, including combinatorics, probability and algebra.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1402.3771,
title = {Tracing evolutionary links between species},
author = {Mike Steel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.3771},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
18 pages, 6 figures (Invited review paper (draft version) for AMM)