The Effect of Nonreversibility on Inferring Rooted Phylogenies.

ABSTRACT: Most phylogenetic models assume that the evolutionary process is stationary and reversible. In addition to being biologically improbable, these assumptions also impair inference by generating models under which the likelihood does not depend on the position of the root. Consequently, the root of the tree cannot be inferred as part of the analysis. Yet identifying the root position is a key component of phylogenetic inference because it provides a point of reference for polarizing ancestor-descendant relationships and therefore interpreting the tree. In this paper, we investigate the effect of relaxing the unrealistic reversibility assumption and allowing the position of the root to be another unknown. We propose two hierarchical models that are centered on a reversible model but perturbed

SUBMITTER: Cherlin S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5889004 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature