Long branch attraction

Long branch attraction (LBA) is a phenomenon in phylogenetic analyses (most commonly those employing maximum parsimony

Maximum parsimony

Parsimony is a non-parametric statistical method commonly used in computational phylogenetics for estimating phylogenies. Under parsimony, the preferred phylogenetic tree is the tree that requires the least evolutionary change to explain some observed data....

) when rapidly evolving lineages are inferred to be closely related, regardless of their true evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

ary relationships. For example, in DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 sequence-based analyses, the problem arises when sequences from two (or more) lineages evolve rapidly. There are only four possible nucleotide

Nucleotide

Nucleotides are molecules that, when joined together, make up the structural units of RNA and DNA. In addition, nucleotides participate in cellular signaling , and are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions...

s and when DNA substitution

Mutation

In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...

 rates are high, the probability that two lineages will evolve the same nucleotide at the same site increases. When this happens, parsimony erroneously interprets this homoplasy as a synapomorphy

Synapomorphy

In cladistics, a synapomorphy or synapomorphic character is a trait that is shared by two or more taxa and their most recent common ancestor, whose ancestor in turn does not possess the trait. A synapomorphy is thus an apomorphy visible in multiple taxa, where the trait in question originates in...

(i.e., evolving once in the common ancestor of the two lineages).

This problem can be minimized by using methods that correct for multiple substitutions at the same site, by breaking up long branches adding taxa related to those with the long branches or by using alternative slower evolving traits.