Program Description:AST is a program that selects representative homologous sequences based on the taxonomic distribution of all homologs. The sequences selected by AST algorithm generates more informative phylogenetic trees than two automated sampling approaches, i.e., random sampling and similarity sampling, with respect to the taxonomic coverage. This method is particularly valuable for inferring the evolutionary history of a gene (family) and identifying ancient HGT events when combining with phylogenetic inference. In the rigorous testing of ancient HGT in two biological problems, the resolution of the results from AST almost reaches the same level obtained by carefully manual selection by domain experts. Therefore, AST algorithm improves previous automatic sampling methods in its ability to study the phylogenies of genes (families), and identify and rigorously test ancient HGT in large scale. The basic algorithm and its applications are described in the following:
Software requirements:AST was developed in PERL language, so PERL version 5.8.1 or later must be pre-installed. It has been installed, tested and run successfully in Linux OS. It may be run in MS Windows with installed PERL.
Download Files: AST.r0.1.tgz