diff --git a/Makefile.PL b/Makefile.PL
index a1d294e..8ac4847 100644
--- a/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Makefile.PL
@@ -54,10 +54,11 @@ WriteMakefile1(
     'DBD::SQLite'    => 0,
     'Bio::SeqIO'     => 0,
     'Bio::TreeIO'    => 0,
+    'Bio::AlignIO'   => 0,
     'Bio::Matrix::IO'=> 0,
     'Bio::Tree::Statistics'=> 0,
     'Bio::Tree::DistanceFactory'=> 0,
-    'Bio::Sketch::Mash'    => 0, # ensures that Mash gets loaded
+    "Bio::Sketch::Mash" => 0.23,
     #'Bio::Kmer'      => 0.19,
     #'Graph::Dijkstra'=> 0,
     #'Readonly'       => 0,
diff --git a/bin/mashtree b/bin/mashtree
index 65e13d6..4113dbe 100755
--- a/bin/mashtree
+++ b/bin/mashtree
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ use FindBin;
 use lib "$FindBin::RealBin/../lib";
 use lib "$FindBin::RealBin/../lib/perl5";
 use File::Which qw/which/;
-use Mashtree qw/logmsg @fastqExt @fastaExt @mshExt @richseqExt _truncateFilename createTreeFromPhylip $MASHTREE_VERSION/;
+use Mashtree qw/logmsg @fastqExt @fastaExt @mshExt @richseqExt _truncateFilename sketchesToAlignment createTreeFromBinaryAlignment $MASHTREE_VERSION/;
 use Mashtree::Db;
 use Bio::Tree::DistanceFactory;
 use Bio::Matrix::IO;
@@ -74,11 +74,13 @@ sub main{
   die "need more arguments\n".usage() if(@reads < 1);
 
   # Check for prereq executables.
-  for my $exe(qw(mash quicktree)){
+  for my $exe(qw(mash)){
     if(!which($exe)){
       die "ERROR: could not find $exe in your PATH";
     }
   }
+  which("raxmlHPC") || which("raxmlHPC-PTHREADS")  
+    or die "ERROR: need raxml in your PATH";
 
   # Check mash version
   my $mashVersion = `mash --version`;
@@ -143,18 +145,20 @@ sub main{
 
   my $sketches=sketchAll(\@reads,"$$settings{tempdir}",$settings);
 
-  my $phylip = mashDistance($sketches,\@reads,$$settings{tempdir},$settings);
+  my $aln = sketchesToAlignment($sketches,"$$settings{tempdir}",$settings);
 
-  my $treeObj = createTreeFromPhylip($phylip,$$settings{tempdir},$settings);
+  my $tree = createTreeFromBinaryAlignment($aln,$$settings{tempdir}, $settings);
 
   # Write the tree
   if($$settings{outtree}){
-    open(my $treeFh, ">", $$settings{outtree}) or die "ERROR writing tree to $$settings{outtree}: $!";
-    print $treeFh $treeObj->as_text('newick');
-    close $treeFh
+    cp($tree, $$settings{outtree}) or die "ERROR: could not copy $tree => $$settings{outtree}: $!";
   } else {
-    print $treeObj->as_text('newick');
-    print "\n";
+    open(my $treeFh, $tree) or die "ERROR: could not read from $tree: $!";
+    while(<$treeFh>){
+      print;
+    }
+    close $treeFh;
+    print "\n"; # ensure a newline after the tree
   }
 
   return 0;
diff --git a/lib/Mashtree.pm b/lib/Mashtree.pm
index a6c2e9e..dcbccd3 100644
--- a/lib/Mashtree.pm
+++ b/lib/Mashtree.pm
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 use Exporter qw(import);
 use File::Basename qw/fileparse basename dirname/;
+use File::Which qw/which/;
 use Data::Dumper;
 use List::Util qw/shuffle/;
 use Scalar::Util qw/looks_like_number/;
@@ -14,9 +15,11 @@ use threads::shared;
 use lib dirname($INC{"Mashtree.pm"});
 use Bio::Matrix::IO;
 use Bio::TreeIO;
+use Bio::Sketch::Mash;
+use Bio::AlignIO;
 
 our @EXPORT_OK = qw(
-           logmsg openFastq _truncateFilename distancesToPhylip createTreeFromPhylip sortNames treeDist mashDist mashHashes raw_mash_distance raw_mash_distance_unequal_sizes
+           logmsg openFastq _truncateFilename distancesToPhylip createTreeFromPhylip sortNames treeDist mashDist mashHashes raw_mash_distance raw_mash_distance_unequal_sizes sketchesToAlignment createTreeFromBinaryAlignment
            @fastqExt @fastaExt @bamExt @vcfExt @richseqExt @mshExt
            $MASHTREE_VERSION
          );
@@ -26,7 +29,7 @@ local $0=basename $0;
 ######
 # CONSTANTS
 
-our $VERSION = "1.1.2";
+our $VERSION = "2.0";
 our $MASHTREE_VERSION=$VERSION;
 our @fastqExt=qw(.fastq.gz .fastq .fq .fq.gz);
 our @fastaExt=qw(.fasta .fna .faa .mfa .fas .fsa .fa);
@@ -101,6 +104,68 @@ sub _truncateFilename{
   return $name;
 }
 
+# Read sketches and create an alignment in phylip format:
+# 1. Make a presence/absence perl hash of min-hashes
+# 2. Create a "sequence" for each sketch
+# 3. Create the MSA of these sequences
+# This function uses $settings with keys:
+#   presence: the nucleotide that stands for presence. Default: "1"
+#   absence:  the nucleotide that stands for absence.  Default: "0"
+#   format:   the format of the output alignment. Default: "phylip"
+sub sketchesToAlignment{
+  my($sketches, $outdir, $settings) = @_;
+
+  my $presence = $$settings{presence} || 1;
+  my $absence  = $$settings{absence}  || 0;
+  my $format   = $$settings{format}   || "phylip";
+
+  my $outfile = "$outdir/aln.$format";
+
+  ## Presence/absence of hashes
+  my %p; # presence/absence
+  for my $file(@$sketches){
+    my $msh = Bio::Sketch::Mash->new($file);
+    my $sketches=$$msh{sketches}[0]{hashes};
+    for my $s(@$sketches){
+      $p{$s}{$file}=1;
+    }
+  }
+  
+  ## Create pseudo-sequences
+  my %sampleSeq;
+  # Sort to help keep output stable
+  my @hashInt = sort{$a<=>$b} keys(%p);
+  for my $h(@hashInt){
+    for my $file(@$sketches){
+      # If the hash is present, then give the "present" nucleotide
+      if($p{$h}{$file}){
+        $sampleSeq{$file} .= $presence;
+      }
+      # If the hash is not present, then give the "absent" nucleotide
+      else{
+        $sampleSeq{$file} .= $absence;
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  
+  ## Make alignment to string
+  my $alnStr = "";
+  for my $file(@$sketches){
+    my $name = _truncateFilename($file, $settings);
+    $alnStr .= ">$name\n";
+    $alnStr .= $sampleSeq{$file}."\n";
+  }
+
+  ## Convert alignment to phylip
+  my $alnin = Bio::AlignIO->new(-string=>$alnStr, -format=>"fasta");
+  my $alnout= Bio::AlignIO->new(-file=>">".$outfile,-format=>$format);
+  while(my $aln = $alnin->next_aln){
+    $alnout->write_aln($aln);
+  }
+
+  return $outfile;
+}
+
 
 # 1. Read the mash distances
 # 2. Create a phylip file
@@ -187,6 +252,51 @@ sub sortNames{
   return @sorted;
 }
 
+# Create a tree from a binary alignment
+sub createTreeFromBinaryAlignment{
+  my($aln, $outdir, $settings) = @_;
+
+  my $outfile = "$outdir/tree.dnd";
+
+  my $raxml = which("raxmlHPC") || which("raxmlHPC-PTHREADS");
+  if(!$raxml){
+    die "ERROR: could not find raxml in your path.";
+  }
+
+  # Avoid raxml crashing because original files were there
+  for my $filename (glob("$outdir/RAxML*.raxml")){
+    unlink $filename;
+  }
+
+  # Run raxml from in the output directory
+  # -f a bootstrapping algorithm
+  # -s the alignment
+  # -n suffix for output files is raxml
+  # -T number of threads
+  # -p and -x are seeds
+  # -N 10 only ten bootstraps for fast analysis
+  # -m BINGAMMA binary gamma model
+  my $raxmllog = "$outdir/raxml.log";
+  logmsg "RAxML log will be in $raxmllog";
+  system("cd $outdir && $raxml -f a -s aln.phylip -n raxml -T $$settings{numcpus} -p $$settings{seed} -x $$settings{seed} -N 10 -m BINGAMMA > ".basename($raxmllog)." 2>&1");
+  if($?){
+    my $raxmlErr = $!;
+    open(my $logfh, $raxmllog) or logmsg "ERROR opening log file $raxmllog: $!";
+    while(<$logfh>){
+      print;
+    }
+    close $logfh;
+
+    die "ERROR running raxml: $raxmlErr" if $?;
+  }
+
+  # Since we're not too interested in bootstrapping here,
+  # just return the best tree.
+  link("$outdir/RAxML_bestTree.raxml", $outfile);
+
+  return $outfile;
+}
+
 # Create tree file with Quicktree but bioperl 
 # as a backup.
 sub createTreeFromPhylip{