Approximate Maximum Parsimony and Ancestral Maximum Likelihood

— We explore the maximum parsimony (MP) and ancestral maximum likelihood (AML) criteria in phylogenetic tree reconstruction. Both problems are NP hard, so we seek approximate solutions. We formulate the two problems as Steiner tree problems under appropriate distances. The gist of our approach is the succinct characterization of Steiner trees for a small number of leaves for the two distances. This enables the use of known Steiner tree approximation algorithms. The approach leads to 16/9

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: TCBB
• Authors: Noga Alon, Benny Chor, Fabio Pardi, Anat Rapoport
• Keywords: Ancestral Maximum Likelihood, Steiner Tree, Steiner Tree Problems, TCBB 2010