Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...

Microbial Phylogeny

Microbial Phylogeny

Understanding the evolutionary relationships among microorganisms is fundamental to microbial ecology and taxonomy. Phylogenetic trees are essential tools for inferring these relationships, relying primarily on comparative analyses of molecular sequences such as DNA, RNA, or proteins. In microbial studies, these trees typically depict the evolutionary paths of diverse bacterial and archaeal species by mapping genetic differences accumulated over time.Phylogenetic trees are composed of tips,...

Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic trees come in many forms. It matters in which sequence the organisms are arranged from the bottom to the top of the tree, but the branches can rotate at their nodes without altering the information. The lines connecting individual nodes can be straight, angled, or even curved.The length of the branches can depict time or the relative amount of change among organisms. For instance, the branch length might indicate the number of amino acid changes in the sequence that underlies the...

Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic trees come in many forms. It matters in which sequence the organisms are arranged from the bottom to the top of the tree, but the branches can rotate at their nodes without altering the information. The lines connecting individual nodes can be straight, angled, or even curved.The length of the branches can depict time or the relative amount of change among organisms. For instance, the branch length might indicate the number of amino acid changes in the sequence that underlies the...

Phylogeny

Phylogeny

Phylogeny is concerned with the evolutionary diversification of organisms or groups of organisms. A group of organisms with a name is called a taxon (singular). Taxa (plural) can span different levels of the evolutionary hierarchy. For instance, the group containing all birds is a taxon (comprising the class Aves), and the group of all species of daisies (the genus Bellis) is a taxon. Phylogenies can likewise include just one genus (i.e., depict species relationships) or span an entire...

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Genetic affinities between the ancient Greek colony of Amvrakia and its metropolis.

Genome biology·2026

Same author

A systematic exploration of current limitations of cognate-based phylogenetic inference.

Open research Europe·2026

Same author

Bit-reproducible parallel phylogenetic tree inference.

Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)·2026

Same author

Performance assessment of phylogenetic inference tools using PhyloSmew.

Bioinformatics advances·2025

Same author

raxtax: a k-mer-based non-Bayesian taxonomic classifier.

Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)·2025

Same author

Advances and challenges in understanding evolution through genome comparison: meeting report of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) lecture course "Evolutionary and Comparative Genomics".

Bioinformatics advances·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Published on: August 14, 2018

Result verification, code verification and computation of support values in phylogenetics.

Alexandros Stamatakis¹, Fernando Izquierdo-Carrasco

¹Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Germany. alexandros.stamatakis@h-its.org

Briefings in Bioinformatics

|January 25, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Verifying evolutionary histories is challenging. This study addresses tree support values and program verification in phylogenetic analysis, highlighting potential impacts on scientific conclusions.

More Related Videos

A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts

A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts

Published on: February 5, 2014

A Concoction Pipeline for Generating Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) Among Riparian and Aquatic Beetles

A Concoction Pipeline for Generating Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) Among Riparian and Aquatic Beetles

Published on: July 11, 2025

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Published on: August 14, 2018

A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts

A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts

Published on: February 5, 2014

A Concoction Pipeline for Generating Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) Among Riparian and Aquatic Beetles

A Concoction Pipeline for Generating Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) Among Riparian and Aquatic Beetles

Published on: July 11, 2025

Area of Science:

Computational Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Computer Science

Background:

Phylogenetic analysis reconstructs species evolutionary histories using computational methods.
Direct verification of deep evolutionary histories is impossible due to the inability to travel through time.
Assessing the accuracy of phylogenetic reconstructions is crucial for reliable evolutionary insights.

Purpose of the Study:

To examine the challenges of verification in phylogenetics.
To focus on two key areas: inference of support values on phylogenetic trees and program verification.
To underscore the importance of program verification, particularly for codes using floating-point arithmetic.

Main Methods:

Discusses the inference of support values for phylogenetic trees.
Addresses program verification issues in computational phylogenetics.
Highlights the role of floating-point arithmetic in computational methods.

Main Results:

Support values offer limited insight into the correctness of phylogenetic trees.
Program verification is an underestimated yet critical aspect of computational science.
Errors in program verification, especially with floating-point arithmetic, can lead to flawed scientific conclusions.

Conclusions:

Verification in phylogenetics is complex, with current methods offering limited certainty.
Program verification is essential for the integrity of computational scientific research.
Addressing verification challenges is vital to ensure the accuracy and reliability of phylogenetic analyses.