Network-based Phylogenetic Analysis

Network-based phylogenetic analysis constructs graph-structured representations of evolutionary relationships that explicitly accommodate reticulate events — including hybridization, horizontal gene transfer, recombination, and incomplete lineage sorting — which strictly bifurcating phylogenetic trees cannot represent. Instead of forcing sequences into a single bifurcating tree, the method infers splits or reticulations in the data and visualises them as a network, revealing conflicting phylogenetic signals that are biologically informative.