Maximum-likelihood analysis of nucleotide and amino acid sequences is a powerful approach for inferring phylogenetic relationships and for comparing evolutionaary hypotheses. Because it is a computationally demanding and time-consuming process, most algorithms explore only a minute protion of tree-space, with the emphasis on finding the most likely tree while ignoring the less likely, but not significantly worse, trees. However, when such trees exist, it is equally important to identify them to give due consideration to the phylogenetic uncertainty. Caonsequently, it is necessary to change the focus of these algorithms such that near optimal trees are also identified.
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