MEGA-: A Review of its Origins and Applications
The term “MEGA” refers to the “Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis” software package, which is a comprehensive suite of computer programs used for a wide range of molecular evolutionary genetic analyses (Kumar, 2016). This article reviews the history of the MEGA software, its applications, and its current role in the field of evolutionary biology.
The MEGA software was first developed in the early 1990s by Joe Felsenstein, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Washington (Felsenstein, 1991). Felsenstein initially developed the software to help evolutionary biologists analyze large amounts of genetic data. Since its introduction, the software has continued to evolve and has become a powerful tool for analyzing genetic data from a variety of sources, including DNA, RNA, and protein sequences.
MEGA is used for a wide range of applications in the field of evolutionary biology. It can be used to infer evolutionary relationships between species, to reconstruct phylogenetic trees, and to estimate evolutionary parameters such as mutation rates and population sizes. Additionally, MEGA has been used to analyze gene expression data and to study the evolution of gene regulatory networks. It has also been used to detect natural selection in action and to identify regions of the genome that are under selection.
The MEGA software is also used by evolutionary biologists to analyze the diversity of gene sequences within a species and to identify genes that are important for adaptation. It can also be used to study the evolution of gene expression and to identify regions of the genome that are conserved across species.
The MEGA software has become an invaluable tool for evolutionary biologists, as it provides a powerful platform for analyzing large amounts of genetic data. The software has been continuously updated and improved over the years, and it continues to be an important resource for evolutionary biologists.
References
Felsenstein, J. (1991). PHYLIP (Phylogeny Inference Package) version 3.5c. Cladistics, 7(3), 164-166.
Kumar, S. (2016). MEGA7: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 7.0 for bigger datasets. Molecular biology and Evolution, 33(7), 1870-1874.