SHOT: A web server for the construction of genome phylogenies

With the increasing availability of genome sequences, new methods are being proposed that exploit information from complete genomes to classify species in a phylogeny. Here we present SHOT, a web server for the classification of genomes on the basis of shared gene content or the conservation of gene order that reflects the dominant, phylogenetic signal in these genomic properties. In general, the genome trees are consistent with classical gene-based phylogenies, although some interesting exceptions indicate massive horizontal gene transfer. SHOT is a useful tool for analysing the tree of life from a genomic point of view. It is available at http://www.Bork.EMBL-Heidelberg.de/SHOT.