ABSTRACT:

Phylogenetic Search, a computationally difficult problem (NP-Hard), is of use to a wide variety of biological problems. This problem has been attacked through a number of heuristic methods,most notably hill climbing. Other heuristics such as genetic algorithms and simulated annealing have also been applied. However, work continues as there remain problems of interest that lie outside of current capabilities. A new direction in the field is the study of treespace as a whole, in an effort to devise new search techniques. This review contains a discussion of all these techniques, the major programs which implement them, and an in depth review of the most commonly used algorithm TBR.