Speaker: Prof. Sebastien Roch, UW-Madison, Department of Mathematics  

Title: Phylogenomics: “Inverting” Random Trees  

Abstract: The estimation of species phylogenies from genome-scale data is an important step in modern evolutionary studies. This estimation is complicated by the fact that genes evolve under biological processes that produce discordant trees. Such processes include horizontal gene transfer, incomplete lineage sorting, and gene duplication and loss, all of which can be modeled using certain random tree distributions. I will discuss recent results on the identifiability, or “invertibility”, of these probabilistic models. I will also consider the large-sample properties of species tree estimation methods in this context. Based partly on joint works with Max Bacharach, Brandon Legried, Erin Molloy, Elchanan Mossel, Allan Sly, Tandy Warnow, Shuqi Yu.