indicates the number of taxa and same limitations for taxon names exist. Note that this matrix is symmetric and the diagonal has values of 0 (since the distance between a taxon and itself is zero by definition). Programs that use trees as input accept the trees in Newick format, an informal standard agreed to in 1986 by authors of seven major phylogeny packages. Output is written onto files with names like outfile and outtree. Trees written onto outtree are in the Newick format. Component programs File format conversion Many programs that convert among alignment formats will output data in phylip or relaxed phylip format. For example, conversion between the PHYLIP multiple sequence alignment format and Multi-FASTA format can done with Genozip using genocat --fasta or genocat --phylip. The PAUP* software package is especially useful for converting between the Nexus format and phylip format. References External links Phylogeny Programs List: A large list of phylogeny packages with details on each one. at 366. Phylogenetics software