Parsimony, Phylogeny, and Genomics

by Victor Albert (Editor)

Overview

Parsimony analysis (cladistics) has long been one of the most widely used methods of phylogenetic inference in the fields of systematic and evolutionary biology. Moreover it has mathematical attributes that lend itself for use with complex, genomic-scale data sets. This book demonstrates the potential that this powerful hierarchical data summarization method also has for both structural and functional comparative genomic research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199297306
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2006
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Victor Albert is a Professor at The Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway. Dr. Albert has published and lectured broadly in the fields of phylogenetic theory and methodology, plant systematics and evolution, plant molecular developmental biology, and evolutionary genomics.

Table of Contents

Preface1. Parsimony and phylogenetics in the genomic age, Victor A. AlbertThe philosophy of parsimony analysis, including comparison with model-based approaches2. What is the rationale for 'Ockham's Razor' (a.k.a. parsimony) in phylogenetic inference?, Arnold G. Kluge3. Parsimony and its presuppositions, Elliott SoberParsimony, character analysis, and optimization of sequence characters4. The logic of the data matrix in phylogenetic analysis, Brent D. Mishler5. Alignment, dynamic homology, and optimization, Ward C. Wheeler6. Parsimony and the problem of inapplicables in sequence data, Jan De LaetComputational limits of parsimony analysis: from historical aspects to competition with fast model-based approaches7. The limits of conventional cladistic analysis, Jerrold I. Davis, Kevin C. Nixon, Damon P. Little8. Parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetics, Pablo A. Goloboff, Diego PolMathematical attributes of parsimony9. Maximum parsimony and the phylogenetic information in multi-state characters, Mike Steel and David PennyParsimony and genomics10. Using phylogeny to understand genomic evolution, David A. Liberles11 Dollo parsimony and reconstruction of genome evolution, Igor Rogozin et al.ReferencesIndex

Editorial Reviews

"This is one of those rare edited volumes that reads like a recent journal with respect to the novelty of work, and is in many ways exciting because of the material included."—Quarterly Review of Biology

"There is a lot to consider in the book for practicing systematists, mostly issues of molecular systematics, ranging from DNA sequence alignment problems to those of the practicality of analysis of the enormous and ever increasing data sets that are generated by genomic approaches to phylogeny reconstruction." —Biology & Philosophy

"This is the book to consult if you want to know more about the role that parsimony analysis has to play in phylogenetics today and what it might be used for in the future." —Systematic Biology

From the Publisher