Phylogenetic modeling of lateral gene transfer reconstructs the pattern and relative timing of speciations.

ABSTRACT: The timing of the evolution of microbial life has largely remained elusive due to the scarcity of prokaryotic fossil record and the confounding effects of the exchange of genes among possibly distant species. The history of gene transfer events, however, is not a series of individual oddities; it records which lineages were concurrent and thus provides information on the timing of species diversification. Here, we use a probabilistic model of genome evolution that accounts for differences between gene phylogenies and the species tree as series of duplication, transfer, and loss events to reconstruct chronologically ordered species phylogenies. Using simulations we show that we can robustly recover accurate chronologically ordered species phylogenies in the presence of gene tree reconstruct

SUBMITTER: Szollosi GJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3491530 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature