Speaker: Chao Zhang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen

Time: 13:30-14:30 p.m., Feb 19, 2025, GMT+8

Venue: Room B101, Lui Che-woo Building, PKU

Abstract: 

Phylogenomics is central to understanding evolutionary relationships, biodiversity, and genome dynamics, yet inference remains challenging due to incomplete lineage sorting (ILS), gene duplications and losses (GDL), and recombination. ASTER is a suite of tools designed to address these challenges in genome-scale analyses. ASTRAL and WASTRAL mitigate the effects of ILS by integrating information from gene trees, while ASTRAL-Pro extends ASTRAL to accommodate multi-copy gene family trees, effectively handling DL. CASTER enables the direct inference of species trees from the entirety of alignable genomes while identifying genomic regions with extraordinary evolutionary signals. Notably, CASTER can be adapted to various input types and applied to different phylogenomic tasks. Together, these methods provide a robust framework for phylogenomic analysis across diverse datasets.

Source: Center for Life Sciences, PKU