Phylogenetics tutorial takes researchers back to basics!

Author(s) Melissa Burke avatar Melissa Burke
Phylogenetics Tutorial GTN Australian BioCommons evolution

Posted on: 13 June 2024 PURL: https://gxy.io/GTN:N00088

A new Galaxy Training Network tutorial has been created to take researchers back to basics to uncover the principles of phylogenetics and how tree-building methods work. A longstanding collaboration between Professor Michael Charleston from the University of Tasmania and Australian BioCommons has delivered this self-guided tutorial featuring videos and hands-on exercises. To maximise its impact, the resource was tailored specifically to be shared globally via the Galaxy Training Network, and will form the basis of an upcoming live training workshop.

Using real-life data, tools available in Galaxy and SplitsTree, the tutorial demonstrates the principles behind a variety of methods used to estimate phylogenetic trees from aligned sequence data or distance data. With a conversational style Michael discusses why phylogenetics is important, unpicks phylogenetics terminology from the roots to the tips and explains concepts such as multiple sequence alignment, how alignments are used to build trees, and phylogenetic networks.

Try out the Phylogenetics: back to basics tutorial in the Galaxy Training Network.

Read more about the collaboration and upcoming live workshop on the BioCommons website.

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Hand drawn sketch of a phylogenetic tree from Charles Darwin's notebook

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