How phylogenetics helps solve practical problems
by the Understanding Evolution team
- Disease detectives. Using trees to identify unfamiliar species has helped us understand the origins of many diseases.
- Tomato tinkering. Using trees to find wild relatives of domestic species has helped us improve important crops.
- Evolutionary matchmaking. Using trees to find relatives of endangered species can help us better conserve these species.
- Drug discovery. Using trees to determine which species are likely to have inherited a particular trait has pointed the way towards new medications.
- Defending diversity. Using trees to identify sets of species with particular sorts of evolutionary histories may help us better conserve ecosystems.
- CSI Evolution. Using trees to determine when particular lineage-splitting events happened has helped defend innocent people in court and uncover the true roots of deadly diseases.
- Trees as tools. As well as having practical applications, evolutionary trees can change the way we look at the world around us.
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