To elaborate on Joe's comment about _accurate_ knowledge of phylogeny,
Joe points out that "for distance methods it is clearly sufficient that there
be some sites in common between each pair of sequences--they need not be the
same sites for different pairs." If the pieces used have different numbers
of sites free to vary (i.e. different probabilities of substitution) ala
Fitch and Marcowitz 1970; Shoemaker and Fitch 1987, then the distances must
be corrected or the fragments will not be comparable.- Chris
CHRIS SIMON PHONE: 203-486-4640
ECOL. EVOL. BIOLOGY U-43 FAX: 203-486-6364
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT BITNET: CSIMON at UCONNVM
STORRS, CT 06269 INTERNET: CSIMON at UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU
