Phylogenetic Analysis — Evolutionary Tree Reconstruction from Molecular Data

Phylogenetic analysis reconstructs the evolutionary history of organisms, genes, or proteins by comparing molecular sequence data and estimating the branching tree that best explains observed similarities and differences. Rooted in the work of Felsenstein and colleagues from the 1960s onward, it is a cornerstone technique in evolutionary biology, microbiology, epidemiology, and comparative genomics, supporting tasks from tracing viral outbreak origins to classifying novel species.