Winding up the molecular clock in the genus Carabus (Coleoptera: Carabidae): assessment of methodological decisions on rate and node age estimation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Rates of molecular evolution are known to vary across taxa and among genes, and this requires rate calibration for each specific dataset based on external information. Calibration is sensitive to evolutionary model parameters, partitioning schemes and clock model. However, the way in which these and other analytical aspects affect both the rates and the resulting clade ages from calibrated phylogenies are not yet well understood. To investigate these aspects we have conducted calibration analyses for the genus Carabus (Coleoptera, Carabidae) on five mitochondrial and four nuclear DNA fragments with 7888 nt total length, testing different clock models and partitioning schemes to select the most suitable using Bayes Factors comparisons.

Results

We used these data to

SUBMITTER: Andujar C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3368785 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature