Determining the Evolutionary Tree Using Experiments

• Published in: Journal of algorithms Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 26 - 50
• Main Authors: Kannan, Sampath K., Lawler, Eugene L., Warnow, Tandy J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01-07-1996; Elsevier
• Subjects: Algorithmics. Computability. Computer arithmetics; Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Exact sciences and technology; Information retrieval. Graph; Theoretical computing; Lower bound; Upper bound; Graph theory; Phylogenetic tree
• ISSN: 0196-6774; 1090-2678
• DOI: 10.1006/jagm.1996.0035

Evolutionary trees, also known asphylogenetic trees, are rooted vertex-labeled trees which describe the evolution of a species setSfrom a common ancestor. The determination of evolutionary trees is a fundamental problem in computational evolutionary biology, and has been studied in great depth. In this paper, we present a new model of computation which assumes that it is possible to determine the true evolutionary tree for each three species, perhaps through the use of Ahlquist–Sibley experimental techniques. We present tight upper and lower bounds for constructing evolutionary trees using experiments.