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Trees from Trees: Construction of Phylogenetic Supertrees Using Clann

Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB, volume 537)

Abstract

Supertree methods combine multiple phylogenetic trees to produce the overall best “supertree.” They can be used to combine phylogenetic information from datasets only partially overlapping and from disparate sources (like molecular and morphological data), or to break down problems thought to be computationally intractable. Some of the longest standing phylogenetic conundrums are now being brought to light using supertree approaches. We describe the most widely used supertree methods implemented in the software program “clann” and provide a step by step tutorial for investigating phylogenetic information and reconstructing the best supertree. Clann is freely available for Windows, Mac and Unix/Linux operating systems under the GNU public licence at http://bioinf.nuim.ie/software/clann.

Key words

Supertree software phylogenetic reconstruction phylogeny congruency test phylogenetic signal detection 
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Copyright information

© Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.EMBL HeidelbergHeidelbergGermany
  2. 2.Department of BiologyNational University of Ireland MaynoothKildareIreland

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