Li W H
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Feb;78(2):1085-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.2.1085.
A simple method is proposed for constructing phylogenetic trees from distance matrices. The procedure for constructing tree topologies is similar to that of the unweighted pair-group method (UPG method) but makes corrections for unequal rates of evolution among lineages. The procedure for estimating branch lengths is the same as that of the Fitch and Margoliash method (F-M method) except that it allows no negative branch lengths. The performance of the present procedure for the construction of tree topologies is compared with that of the UPG method, the F-M method, Farris' method, and the modified Farris method by using Tateno's simulation outputs for nucleotide sequence divergence and his results for the performances of the latter four methods [Tateno, Y. (1978) Dissertation (Univ. Texas, Houston, TX). In this limited comparison, the present method performs considerably better than the UPG method and the F-M method and about equally well as the last two methods. The present method appears to be preferable to the UPG method for analysis of data from populations that have not differentiated much. Indeed, an application of the present method to gene frequency data from some Amerindian populations gives a tree topology far more reasonable than that obtained by the UPG method.
提出了一种从距离矩阵构建系统发育树的简单方法。构建树拓扑结构的过程与非加权配对组方法（UPG方法）类似，但对谱系间不等的进化速率进行了校正。估计分支长度的过程与菲奇和马戈利亚什方法（F-M方法）相同，只是不允许出现负分支长度。通过使用立野关于核苷酸序列分歧的模拟输出以及他对后四种方法性能的结果，将当前构建树拓扑结构的方法与UPG方法、F-M方法、法里斯方法和改良法里斯方法的性能进行了比较[立野洋（1978年）论文（得克萨斯大学，休斯顿，得克萨斯州）]。在这一有限的比较中，当前方法的表现明显优于UPG方法和F-M方法，与后两种方法表现相当。对于分析分化程度不高的群体的数据，当前方法似乎比UPG方法更可取。实际上，将当前方法应用于一些美洲印第安人群体的基因频率数据时，得到的树拓扑结构比UPG方法得到的更为合理。
