operational taxonomic unit

English

Alternative forms

• OTU

Noun

operational taxonomic unit (plural operational taxonomic units)

1. A terminal node in phylogenetic analysis; an organism.

   External nodes: things under comparison; operational taxonomic units

See also

• hypothetical taxonomic unit

References

• D. Graur and W. Li, Fundamentals of Molecular Evolution, Second Edition (2000)
• T.A. Brown, Genomes, Third Edition (2007)