Phylogeography

SITES, JR. J. W.; MORANDO, M.

Enciclopedia of Life Sciences

Wiley-Blackwell

Año: 2009 p. 1 - 8

1092-1206

Phylogeography is a relatively young discipline, having been introduced into the literature in 1987. Its original focus was the analysis of gene trees (derived from molecular sequence data) in spatial geographic contexts, and for almost a decade, the field was dominated by the use of the mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) locus (in animals). Because phylogeography contains an explicit tree-based focus on population genetic questions, it has successfully linked this discipline to the previously disconnected domain of phylogenetic systematics. From a largely descriptive beginning, phylogeography has become more rigorous by the inclusion of independent nuclear gene loci, more quantitative by incorporation of various statistical methods (nested clade phylogeographic analysis, statistical phylogeography) and more synthetic by incorporation of coalescent theory (using gene trees to estimate species trees) and data and methods from disciplines such as landscape genetics, palaeoecology and palaeoclimatology. Modern phylogeography has many applications to other disciplines of biology.