Resolving Difficult Phylogenetic Questions: Why More Sequences Are Not Enough
16.03.2011
Even using genome-scale ("phylogenomic") data sets, reconstructing the Tree of Life is a difficult endeavour. In a perspective in the prestigeous journal PLoS Biology, an international group of researchers, including Prof. Wörheide, critically assessed three recently published and conflicting studies of early metazoan (animal) evolution. They review the issues that plague phylogenomics, suggest practical approaches mitigating their impact and show how these approaches solve the contradictions observed for animal.