Darwin first proposed evolution as a way that species change and diverge to fill niches in their environment. This observation led to the first, rudimentary species trees, showing ancestors and descendants across genetic lineages.

But this work is far from settled. As we continue to collect more and richer data sets from species, whether they be plants, bacteria, or mammals like ourselves, researchers need new and better methods for building phylogenetic trees. That’s where Tandy Warnow, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, comes in.

Find our transcript here: LINK

Curious to learn more? Check out these additional links:

Tandy’s talk for IMSI’s workshop, Eliciting Structure in Genomics Data: https://www.imsi.institute/videos/theory-and-practice-for-large-scale-phylogeny-estimation/

History of the ‘Tree of Life’: https://www.nature.com/articles/540038a

Multispecies coalescent process: https://academic.oup.com/book/26340/chapter-abstract/194642189?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Gene duplication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_by_gene_duplication

Follow more of IMSI’s work: www.IMSI.institute, (twitter) @IMSI_institute, (mastodon) https://sciencemastodon.com/@IMSI, (instagram) IMSI.institute

Follow Tandy Warnow: https://tandy.cs.illinois.edu/

This episode was audio engineered by Tyler Damme.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) is funded by NSF grant DMS-1929348.