fastme
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Description:
Accurate and fast distance-based phylogeny inference program
Type: Formula  |  Latest Version: 2.1.6.3@1  |  Tracked Since: Dec 17, 2025
Links: Homepage  |  formulae.brew.sh
Category: Other
Tags: bioinformatics phylogenetics evolution command-line science
Install: brew install fastme
About:
FastME is a command-line tool for inferring phylogenetic trees from distance matrices. It implements advanced algorithms like Balanced Minimum Evolution (BME) and a balanced version of Neighbor-Joining (BIONJ) to produce highly accurate topologies. The program is optimized for speed and is suitable for large datasets in evolutionary biology.
Key Features:
  • Implements Balanced Minimum Evolution (BME) for high accuracy
  • Includes Balanced Neighbor-Joining (BIONJ) and other methods
  • Optimized for high performance with large datasets
  • Supports various input formats (e.g., PHYLIP, Newick)
Use Cases:
  • Reconstructing evolutionary trees from genetic or morphological distance data
  • Comparing the performance of different phylogenetic inference algorithms
  • Processing large-scale genomic datasets for phylogenomic studies
Alternatives:
  • PhyML – PhyML uses likelihood-based methods, which are often more computationally intensive than FastME's distance-based approach.
  • RAxML – RAxML is another likelihood-based tool, known for its robustness but generally slower than distance-based methods like FastME.
License: GPL-3.0-or-later
Bottles available for: arm64_tahoe, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_ventura, arm64_monterey, sonoma, ventura, monterey, arm64_linux, x86_64_linux
Version History
Detected Version Rev Change Commit
Sep 13, 2025 6:32pm 1 VERSION_BUMP 3f8e8ddc
Sep 13, 2024 4:08am 1 VERSION_BUMP b7b9b97a