Phylogenetic search is a key tool used in a variety of biological research endeavours. However, this search problem is known to be computationally difficult, due to the astronomically large search space, making the use of heuristic methods necessary. The performance of heuristic methods for finding Maximum Likelihood (ML) trees can be improved by using parsimony as an initial estimator for ML. ...

stem rust caused by puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (pgt) is one of the destructive diseases of wheat in the world. the fungal pathogen can infect 365 different grass and more than 70 berberis species. dna sequences for the ribosomal rna internal transcribed spacer (its) have proven suitable to explore relationships at the species and subspecies levels. an isolate of pgt which was collected fr...

MOTIVATION Haplotypes have been attracting increasing attention because of their importance in analysis of many fine-scale molecular-genetics data. Since direct sequencing of haplotype via experimental methods is both time-consuming and expensive, haplotype inference methods that infer haplotypes based on genotype samples become attractive alternatives. RESULTS (1) We design and implement an ...

In this paper, we investigate a conjecture by Arndt von Haeseler concerning the Maximum Parsimony method for phylogenetic estimation, which was published by the Newton Institute in Cambridge on a list of open phylogenetic problems in 2007. This conjecture deals with the question whether Maximum Parsimony trees are hereditary. The conjecture suggests that a Maximum Parsimony tree for a particula...