Reconstruction of Phylogenetic Trees using the Ant Colony Optimization Paradigm

We developed a new approach for the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees using ant colony optimization metaheuristics.Atree is constructed using a fully connected graph and the problem is approached similarly to the well-known traveling salesman problem. This methodology was used to develop an algorithm for constructing a phylogenetic tree using a pheromone matrix. Two data sets were tested with the algorithm: complete mitochondrial genomes from mammals and DNA sequences of the p53 gene from several eutherians. This new methodology was found to be superior to other well-known softwares, at least for this data set. These results are very promising and suggest more efforts for further developments. Key words: Phylogeny, Bioinformatics, Evolutionary computation, Ant colony optimization Genetics and Molecular Research 4 (3): 581-589 (2005) FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br 

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: WOB
• Authors: Heitor S. Lopes, Mauricio Perretto
• Keywords: Ant Colony Optimization, Data Set, Phylogenetic Tree, WOB 2004, WOB 2008