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PUZZLE4.0 can
be run on several platforms including UNIX and Macintosh. The program
can be downloaded
from the web. It was written by Korbinian Strimmer and Arndt
von Haeseler.
Because of the
intensive calculations needed for maximum
likelihood analyses there is often only a limited number of
taxa that can be analyzed at a time. To reduce this limitation these
authors have proposed a quartet approach to allow faster maximum
likelihood analyses of large datasets (numerous taxa).
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Instead of searching
trees with the full range of taxa they proposed a method where a
tree is estimate through a two step process. The first step involves
the calculation of the best tree with maximum likelihood for all
possible combination of four taxa (quartets),
a simple task since there is only three possible topologies for
a quartet.
All quartets
are then combined into a single tree for all n-taxa using
a consensus method, if all quartets are compatible a unique tree
will always be found. This is very unlikely with real data and different
trees can be obtained. This is typically dependent on the order
in which quartets are combined.
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To avoid quartet
sampling order effects the last step is repeated numerous times
with a different quartet order each time, this is the so called
puzzling step. After numerous, typicaly 1,000-10,000, puzzling
steps a majority consensus tree is calculated from all reconstructed
n-taxa trees.
The final tree
summarizes the result by suggesting an n-taxa tree. Support
for the tree topology is indicated by the resolved branching pattern
and PUZZLE
support values (maximum 100%, i.e. all n-taxa trees recovered
the specific clade or polytomies for really poorly
support branching patterns). These values are not bootstrap
values but can apparently correspond well to them in some situations.
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