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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
08:57
Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin
Published on: August 14, 2018
When the Past Fades: Detecting Phylogenetic Signal with SatuTe
Cassius Manuel1, Enes Sakalli1,2, Heiko A Schmidt1
1Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna, Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, Dr. Bohr Gasse 9, Vienna A-1030, Austria.
Molecular Biology and Evolution
|May 27, 2025
Summary
We introduce SatuTe, a new method and program to measure phylogenetic information between subtrees. This tool helps identify informative branches and alignment regions for accurate evolutionary tree reconstruction.
Area of Science:
- Phylogenetics
- Computational Biology
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Phylogenetic saturation is a known issue impacting evolutionary tree reconstruction.
- Existing methods for quantifying saturation lack systematic approaches.
- Understanding saturation is crucial for accurate phylogenetic inference.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel measure for phylogenetic information shared between subtrees.
- To generalize sequence saturation to subtree saturation.
- To implement this measure in a versatile program, SatuTe.
Main Methods:
- Proposed a new measure for phylogenetic information between connected subtrees.
- Developed the SatuTe program for implementing this measure.
- Applied SatuTe to analyze phylogenetic signal in Tree of Life reconstructions.
Main Results:
- SatuTe identifies phylogenetically informative branches and supporting alignment regions.
- Analysis of ribosomal proteins and 16S rRNA gene data revealed differential signal retention.
- Most ribosomal proteins retained strong phylogenetic signal for Eukaryota, while some 16S rRNA regions lost information.
Conclusions:
- SatuTe provides a systematic method to assess subtree saturation.
- The program offers new insights into phylogenetic inference.
- SatuTe complements standard phylogenetic analyses by quantifying information content.
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