Educators:
Tal Dagan (CAU)

Date:
20.05.2019, 08:15 - 16:00

Location:
Kiel

Contents/Learning goals:
The evolutionary history of genes or species is best studied and described by phylogenetic trees. The accumulating sequence data enable the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees for many diverse gene and species. A robust phylogeny is helpful in identifying phyletic groups as well as ancestral relations in the data and lateral gene transfer. Notwithstanding phylogenetic reconstruction is sensitive to various biases in the analysis that originate in alignment and phylogenetic reconstruction artifacts. Students in the workshop will learn to reconstruct multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic trees of focal sequences. This includes a quantification of possible biases in the phylogenetic reconstruction and ways to counteract their influence on the results. In addition, the students will learn how to identify the root of phylogenetic trees and extract ancestral-descendent relations.

The workshop is intended to address scientists from undergraduate to postdoc level and does not expect previous experience in phylogenetics. Basic knowledge on how to work with Linux will be advantageous.

Prerequisites:
None

Keywords:
Tree phylogeny, gene homology, rooting, robustness

Tools:
MAFFT, Guidance, PhyML, IQTree, MAD rooting, FigTree.