Microbial phylogenetics

Microbial phylogenetics is the study of how different kinds of microbes, like bacteria and viruses, are related to each other. It looks at how similar microbes are to each other in terms of their genetic makeup. Scientists can look at the similarities and differences between different kinds of microbes and figure out how they are related. Just like you can figure out the genealogy of your family, scientists can figure out which microbes are closely related and which are more distant.