Fungal Trees Grow Faster With Computer Help

摘要

Researchers trying to determine the relatedness of organisms are finding it hard to keep up with the torrent of DNA sequence data gushing from biology's spigots. Now, two new computer programs are coming to the rescue, at least for biologists constructing the fungal family tree. One program, created by Frank Kauff of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues, helps validate, assemble, and keep track of raw data from fungal DNA sequencing efforts. The other, developed by David Hibbett of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, automatically retrieves fungal DNA sequences from the public archives and incorporates the data into an ever-improving phy-logeny of this diverse group of microorganisms. Both efforts are part of the "Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life" project begun in 2003 and may be bellwethers of taxonomy's future. "It's great to have this all automated," says Michael Donoghue, a botanist at Yale University. "It means that progress can be made while we sleep."