Spectrum^TM is a Macintosh® program designed to read in a data file comprising aligned character arrays (such as DNA sequence data) or distance data in the form of a matrix, and perform some simple spectral analysis procedures on that data.

Spectral analysis is a wonderful tool for visualising phylogenetic information without forcing it into a tree - this has the advantage of avoiding (1) the difficulty of choosing which is the "best" method for tree reconstruction, and (2) the whole issue of whether the data is tree-like.

The input file format is NEXUS, as used in PAUP and MacClade.

The program reads in phylogenetic 4-state or binary data, or distance data, and outputs the bipartition spectra corresponding to the data. It can also be used it to find the tree whose expected spectrum is closest to your observed spectrum (the "closest tree" and "Manhattan tree"-- see the manual). Spectrum outputs spectra in Excel format as tab-delimited text files and trees as TreeView files.

[ Example files are included. ]

• Macintosh 68K version (slightly buggy)
• Macintosh PowerPC version
• Windows '95 / NT version

Please register your copy of Spectrum! It costs nothing, and if you register I can keep you up to date with bugs, bug fixes, updates etc. E-mail me to register.

Spectrum was written with support from NERC grant GR3/1A095 and from Rod Page, who provided copious interface programming help, large amounts of coffee, and the occasional chocolate biscuit.

Disclaimer: This software is provided with no warranty whatsoever. I attempt to keep it bug-free and safe, but I am not omnipotent and cannot guarantee its performance. The authors can accept no responsibility for any problems which may be caused by running this software.

Spectrum is a production of Impkin Software, a division of Impkin Incorporated. The software and the accompanying documentation are å© copyright M. A. Charleston and R. D. M. Page, 1996 - 1997.