TRACE: Phylogenetic reconstruction using Gaussian processes.

Grant Beneficiary: University of Dubrovnik

Coordinator at the University of Dubrovnik: assoc. prof. Ivana Palunko, PhD

Researchers: Domagoj Tolić, Rade Garić and Dinka Lale

Source of funding: Croatian Ministry of Science

Duration of the project: 2020 – 2022

In biology, phylogeny is a discipline that studies the evolution history and relationships between particular organisms or groups of organisms. These connections are revealed by using inference methods in phylogeny that value perceived hereditary features, such as DNA strands or morphology, based on the evolutionary model of individual features. As a result of such studies, phylogeny emerges as a diagrammatic hypothesis of the evolutionary kinship history of the group of organisms. Within this interdisciplinary project, we will develop a method for phylogenetic reconstruction using Gaussian processes. Modeling the DNA evolution using Gaussian processes could help solve common phylogenetic problems and serve as an independent method of phylogenetic reconstruction.