A Mathematical Primer of Molecular Phylogenetics

This volume, A Mathematical Primer of Molecular Phylogenetics, offers a unique perspective on a number of phylogenetic issues that have not been covered in detail in previous publications. The volume provides sufficient mathematical background for young mathematicians and computational scientists, as well as mathematically inclined biology students, to make a smooth entry into the expanding field of molecular phylogenetics. The book will also provide sufficient details for researchers in phylogenetics to understand the workings of existing software packages used.

The volume offers comprehensive but detailed numerical illustrations to render difficult mathematical and computational concepts in molecular phylogenetics accessible to a variety of readers with different academic background.

The text includes examples of solved problems after each chapter, which will be particularly helpful for fourth-year undergraduates, postgraduates, and postdoctoral students in biology, mathematics and computer sciences. Researchers in molecular biology and evolution will find it very informative as well.

1. Introduction to Molecular Phylogenetics 2. Sequence Alignment 3. Nucleotide Substitution Models and Evolutionary Distances 4. Protein and Codon Substitution Models and their Evolutionary Distances 5. Substitution Rate Heterogeneity over Sites 6. Maximum Parsimony Method 7. Distance-Based Phylogenetic Methods 8. Maximum Likelihood in Molecular Phylogenetics 9. Comparative Methods 10. Appendix

Xuhua Xia, PhD, has been a professor of biology at the University of Ottawa, Canada, since 2009. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong in 1996, and served in 2001 as a senior scientist and head of Bioinformatics Laboratory in the then-newly established HKU-Pasteur Research Centre.