DecisivatoR

Abstract

One of the major challenges in evolutionary biology is reconstructing the Tree of Life. Many phylogenetic trees have been estimated for many sequence and character datasets. Supertree methods have been developed to take advantage of this infrastructure by combining separate phylogenies into a single However, the trees often do not contain enough data to construct a unique supertree. In this case multiple supertrees are consistent with the constituent trees, and there is no a priori way to choose the best. A set of taxa and characters used to build component trees is decisive when they are sufficient to determine a unique supertree. Clearly, it would be useful to know when a set of characters and taxa are decisive, and therefore when they lead to a unique supertree. We have developed and validated an R package, the DECISIVATOR, to provide this service.