Leveraging comparative phylogenetics for evolutionary medicine: applications to comparative oncology

Comparative phylogenetics provides a wealth of computational tools to understand evolutionary processes and their outcomes. Advances in these methodologies have occurred in parallel with a surge in cross-species genomic and phenotypic data. To date, however, the majority of published studies have focused on classical questions in evolutionary biology, such as speciation and the ecological drivers of trait evolution. Here, we argue that evolutionary medicine in general, and our understanding of the origin and diversification of disease traits in particular, would be greatly expanded by a wider integration of phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs). We use comparative oncology-the study of cancer across the tree of life-as an example to demonstrate the power of the approach and show that implementing PCMs can highlight the mode and tempo of the evolutionary changes in intrinsic, species-level disease vulnerabilities.

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Publication Details

Journal
Evolution Medicine and Public Health
Published
2025-12-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoaf039
Primary Topic
Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Leveraging comparative phylogenetics for evolutionary medicine: applications to comparative oncology

Beckett Sterner, Diego Mallo, Zachary T. Compton, Martin B. Marx et al.
Evolution Medicine and Public Health
Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
article

Leveraging comparative phylogenetics for evolutionary medicine: applications to comparative oncology

Beckett Sterner, Diego Mallo, Zachary T. Compton, Martin B. Marx, Pin‐I Huang, Carlo C. Maley, Luke Harmon, Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, Bryan Yavari, Harley I. Richker, Stefania E. Kapsetaki, Cristina Baciu, Hannah Human, Hunter W. McCollum, Walker J Compton Mellon, Orsolya Vincze, J Arvid Ågren
article en

Abstract

Comparative phylogenetics provides a wealth of computational tools to understand evolutionary processes and their outcomes. Advances in these methodologies have occurred in parallel with a surge in cross-species genomic and phenotypic data. To date, however, the majority of published studies have focused on classical questions in evolutionary biology, such as speciation and the ecological drivers of trait evolution. Here, we argue that evolutionary medicine in general, and our understanding of the origin and diversification of disease traits in particular, would be greatly expanded by a wider integration of phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs). We use comparative oncology-the study of cancer across the tree of life-as an example to demonstrate the power of the approach and show that implementing PCMs can highlight the mode and tempo of the evolutionary changes in intrinsic, species-level disease vulnerabilities.

Evolution Medicine and Public HealthVol. 14(1)
University of Arizona (US), University of Idaho (US), Hellenic Open University (GR), Babeș-Bolyai University (RO), Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (US), Frederick University (CY), Evolutionary Genomics (United States) (US), HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research (HU), University of Arizona Cancer Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, Arizona State University (US), Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (US)
John Templeton Foundation, National Institutes of Health
Openalex Percentile: Top 34%
Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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