Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics

This book presents the statistical methods that are useful in the study of molecular evolution and illustrates how to use them in actual data analysis. Molecular evolution has been developing at a great pace over the past decade or so, driven by the huge increase in genetic sequence data from many organisms, the improvement of high-speed microcomputers, and the development of several new methods for phylogenetic analysis. This book for graduate students and researchers, assuming a basic knowledge of evolution, molecular biology, and elementary statistics, should make it possible for many investigators to incorporate refined statistical analysis of large-scale data in their own work.