Résumé
A popular approach in phylogenetics consists in estimating a matrix of evolutionary distances between pairs of taxa, and then using this information to reconstruct a phylogenetic tree for those taxa. In this article, we first explain how distances should be defined and estimated, and then focus on the task of inferring a phylogenetic tree that accounts for the estimated distances. Specifically, we will introduce the classical guiding principles for tree inference – least squares and minimum evolution – and then present the most popular distance-based methods – in particular neighbor joining and a wide array of algorithms inspired by it.