Inferring Phylogenies

ISBN-13: 9780878931774 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 580 str.

Joseph Felsenstein; Joseph Felenstein

Opis

Phylogenies (evolutionary trees) are basic to thinking about and analyzing differences between species. Statistical, computational, and algorithmic work on them has been ongoing for four decades, with great advances in understanding. Yet no book has summarized this work until now. Inferring Phylogenies explains clearly the assumptions and logic of making inferences about phylogenies, and using them to make inferences about evolutionary processes. It is an essential text and reference for anyone who wants to understand how phylogenies are reconstructed and how they are used. As phylogenies are inferred with various kinds of data, this book concentrates on some of the central ones: discretely coded characters, molecular sequences, gene frequencies, and quantitative traits. Also covered are restriction sites, RAPDs, and microsatellites. Inferring Phylogenies is intended for graduate-level courses, assuming some knowledge of statistics, mathematics (calculus and fundamental matrix algebra), molecular sequences, and quantitative genetics.

Recenzje

Felsenstein's book represents a truly majestic discussion of the inference and applications of phylogenetic trees. The power of this volume lies in its unique combination of an accessible style with undoubted intellectual authority. Over 30 years ago Crow and Kimura produced what has become the cornerstone of theoretical population genetics. Felsenstein has now given us the definitive resource for anyone interested in phylogenetics. This volume is an outstanding achievement.

O autorze

Joe Felsenstein is Professor in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he has taught for more than thirty years. He earned a B.S. (Honors) in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Felsenstein is the author of the widely used PHYLIP package of programs for inferring phylogenies. He served as President of the Society for the Study of Evolution in 1993 and has received numerous awards, including: election to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992); the Sewall Wright Award, American Society of Naturalists (1993; election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences (1999); and the Weldon Memorial Prize, Oxford University (2000). His work has ranged from theoretical evolutionary genetics to statistical methods for inferring phylogenies.