Question

Which of the following is wrong statement about the maximum likelihood approach?

(a) This method doesn’t always involve probability calculations

(b) It finds a tree that best accounts for the variation in a set of sequences

(c) The method is similar to the maximum parsimony method

(d) The analysis is performed on each column of a multiple sequence alignment

The question was posed to me in final exam.

This intriguing question originated from The Maximum Likelihood Approach topic in portion Phylogenetic Tree Construction Methods and Programs of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

Correct option is (a) This method doesn’t always involve probability calculations

The best I can explain: This method involve probability calculations to find a tree that best accounts for the variation in a set of sequences. All possible trees are considered. Hence, the method is only feasible for a small number of sequences.