Maximum parsimony

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Maximum parsimony ( English about maximum thrift ) describes in the biological relationship analysis procedures for the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees . The trees that need the least evolutionary change to explain the observed data are preferred . Maximum parsimony is in competition with other methods such as neighbor joining algorithms and the maximum likelihood method , each of these methods having certain advantages, but also being prone to certain artifacts. At maximum parsimony are mainly the so-called long-branch attraction artefacts ( English about artifacts long branches by the attraction ) is possible. Here can taxa , which due to a relatively high rate of mutations are on long branches of a tree, to mistakenly place in the basal Kladogramm be placed and thereby distort the results. Until shortly before the turn of the millennium, the occurrence of long branch attraction artifacts was considered unlikely, but numerous examples are now known. Since then, many methods have been used to discover or avoid this effect.

literature

  • Joseph Felsenstein: Cases in which Parsimony or Compatibility Methods will be Positively Misleading . In: Systematic Biology . tape 27 , no. 4 , December 1978, p. 401-410 , doi : 10.1093 / sysbio / April 27, 401 .
  • Bryan Kolaczkowski, Joseph W. Thornton: Performance of maximum parsimony and likelihood phylogenetics when evolution is heterogeneous . In: Nature . tape 431 , no. 7011 , May 2004, p. 980-984 , doi : 10.1038 / nature02917 .
  • Johannes Bergsten: A review of long-branch attraction . In: Cladistics . tape 21 , no. 2 , April 2005, p. 163-193 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1096-0031.2005.00059.x .