title: TAXODIUM version 1.0: a simple way to generate uniform and fractionally weighted three-item matrices from various kinds of biological data.
abstract: An open-access program for generating three-item statement (3TS) matrices from data such as molecular sequences does not currently exist. The recently developed LisBeth package allows for representation of hypotheses of homology among taxa or areas directly as rooted trees or as hierarchies; however, LisBeth is not a standard matrix-based platform. Here we present "TAXODIUM version 1.0" (TAXODIUM), a program designed for building 3TS-matrices from binary, additive (ordered) and non-additive (unordered) multistate characters, with both uniform and fractional weighting of the statements. TAXODIUM also facilitates, for the first time, use of Maximum Likelihood analyses with 3TS matrices, but future implementation of the 3TS analysis in a statistical framework will require more exploration.
authors.affiliation: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. evgeny@ufl.edu
authors.forename: Evgeny V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Mavrodiev
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Madorsky
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D019992:Databases as Topic; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D004247:DNA