Contents


**Preface VII** 

Chapter 4 **Genetic Diversity in Banana and Plantains Cultivars from Eastern DRC and Tanzania Using SSR and Morphological Markers, Their Phylogenetic Classification and Principal Components Analyses 59**  Dowiya Benjamin Nzawele, Antoine Kanyenga Lubolo, Paul M. Kusolwa, Cornel L. Rweyemamu and Amon P. Maerere

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Phylogenetics**

**Abstract**

phylogenetic methods

**1. Introduction**

**Phylogenetics**

Eliane Barbosa Evanovich dos Santos

Eliane Barbosa Evanovich dos Santos

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79422

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.79422

Describing the diversity of living beings has always instigated man. The classification proposed by Aristotle today seems naïve and unnatural, but it lasted from ancient Greece until the publication of the Linnaeus *Systema Naturae* in 1758. Although quite accurate, the taxonomic classification proposed by naturalist Carl Linnaeus did not consider the evolutionary relationships between living beings. This view, although prior to Charles Darwin, only gained deserved prominence after *On the Origin of Species*. Only in the twentieth century, a new area founded by Hennig, phylogenetic systematics was implemented, and with this, a series of useful methods in the construction of phylogenetic trees arose, as maximum parsimony, neighbor joining, UPGMA, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference. With the advancement of information technology, phylogenetic analyses have become more sophisticated and faster. The algorithms used in the analysis programs have become more complex and realistic, favoring the addition of substitution models. The application of these data and the greater facility in generating nucleotide and amino acid sequences allowed the comparison previously unimaginable, for example, between bacteria and eukaryotes. In this way, the history of the advances of phylogenetic knowl-

edge is confused with the greater knowledge about the origin of life.

**Keywords:** evolution, phylogenetic systematics, phylogenetic tree, taxonomy,

Different criteria of biological classification were created throughout history. Some are arbitrary and do little to reflect the evolutionary relationship between species, for example, the Aristotelian system. But not always reflecting the relations of relatives was a concern. Even the iconic classification suggested by Linnaeus was not intended to reflect this relationship (although it is very consistent with current taxonomic classification). Only with Darwin and

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

## **Chapter 1**
