Phylogenetic reconstruction using algebraic geometry

Abstract

A new approach to phylogenetic reconstruction has been emerging in the last years. Given an evolutionary model, the joint probability distribution of the nucleotides for these species satisfy some algebraic constraints called invariants. These invariants have theoretical and practical interest, since they can be used to infer phylogenies. In this paper, we explain how to use these invariants to design algorithms for phylogenetic reconstruction and we show how the application of tools and theoretical results coming from commutative algebra and algebraic geometry can improve the performance and the efficiency of these algorithms.