Phylogenetic Tree Viewer
(Version 2.0 of the viewer is also avilable)
The rapid accumulation of DNA sequences in recent years has allowed the application of statistical methods to a wide variety of biological questions. Data have increased more rapidly than computing power. Researchers are often forced to exclude potentially informative data to make analysis practical, knowing that such exclusions may limit the accuracy of the results.
Maximum likelihood methods of statistical inference were devloped in the 1930's by R.A. Fisher. Theoretical applications of these methods to phylogenetic analysis were devloped by Felsenstein in the '70s and early '80s. Maximum-likelyhood meothds of phylogenetic inference are superior to other methods in common use, particularly when the dataset includes highly-divergent sequences. Until recently, however, the computationally intensive nature of these analyses prevented their use with large datasets.
The availability of massive parallel architectures has made it practical to analyze large datasets. Demonstrating computationally intesive phylogenetic analyses at SC98 will pave the way for biologists connected on such advanced networks as vBNS, APAN, and SINGAREN to access remote compute servers, collaborate with researchers worldwide, and contribute datasets to the computation.
Data in these images and in the accompanying distributions is from:
Delwiche, Charles F., Maria Kuhsel, and Jeffrey D. Palmer. 1995. "Phylogenetic analysis of tufA sequences indicates a cyanobacterial origin of all plastids." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 4: 110-128.
Also available
- VRML 2.0 models of a single time step (83K / image) and a sequence of time steps with temporal traces (423K / image).
