New Uses for New Phylogenies

Recent advances in molecular genetics make the sequencing of genes a straightforward exercise. Comparisons of sequenced genes from different individuals of a species, or from different species, allow the construction of family trees or evolutionary trees which reveal genetic relationships. This volume shows for the first time how those trees, or phylogenies, can be used to answer questions about population dynamics, epidemiology, development, biodiversity, conservation, and the evolution of genetic systems. The techniques for deciding what these new trees can tell us come together in a unified framework so that a common set of methods can be applied, whatever area of biology interests the researcher.

Now that scientists can sequences genes with relative ease, the relationships among living organisms are becoming better known. Those relationships are summarized as phylogenetic trees. This book reveals how those trees can be used to give insights into diverse fields of biological enquiry including ecology, epidemiology, development, conservation, and the evolutionary process itself.

1 - What this book is about
2 - New phylogenies: an introductory look at the coalescent
3 - Genealogies and geography
4 - The coalescent process and background selection
5 - Inferring population history from molecular phylogenies
6 - Applications of intraspecific phylogenetics
7 - Inferring phylogenies from DNA sequence data: the effects of sampling
8 - Uses for evolutionary trees
9 - Cross-species transmission and recombination of 'AIDS' viruses
10 - Using interspecies phylogenies to test macroevolutionary hypotheses
11 - Using phylogenetic trees to reconstruct the history of infectious disease epidemics
12 - Relating geographic patterns to phylogenetic processes
13 - Uses of molecular phylogenies for conservation
14 - Testing the time axis of phylogenies
15 - Comparative evolution of larval and adult life-history stages and small subunit ribosomal RNA amongst post-Palaeozoic echinoids
16 - Molecular phylogenies and host-parasite cospeciation: gophers and lice as a model system
17 - A microevolutionary link, between phylogenies and comparative data
18 - Comparative test of evolutionary lability and rats using molecular phylogenies
19 - Community evolution in Greater Antilean anolis lizards: phylogenetic patterns and experimental tests
20 - The evolution of body plans: HOM/Hox cluster evolution, model systems, and the importance of phylogeny.