Phylogenetic trees are commonly utilised in evolutionary biology. These trees represent the evolution of a set of species. In case of gene transfer however, a phylogenetic tree is insufficient. In such cases, tree-based phylogenetic networks are more suitable as they can depict reticulate evolution.
Nonetheless, tree-based phylogenetic networks have their limitations as they are unable to represent reticulate events occurring between different environments, families, or lineages of species. To address this, forest-based networks offer a solution.
A forest-based network is a collection of leaf-disjoint phylogenetic trees with arcs added between different trees in case of reticulate evolution.
In this thesis, an integer linear programme (ILP) is created to determine whether a binary phylogenetic network is forest-based. It is important to note that this thesis exclusively focuses on binary phylogenetic networks.
This ILP model is expected to be valuable in the development of new models and algorithms for both binary and non-binary phylogenetic networks, thereby enhancing the understanding of reticulate evolution. Additionally, the ILP may lead to time-related challenges when processing bigger phylogenetic networks.