A Relaxed Directional Random Walk Model for Phylogenetic Trait Evolution.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the processes that give rise to quantitative measurements associated with molecular sequence data remains an important issue in statistical phylogenetics. Examples of such measurements include geographic coordinates in the context of phylogeography and phenotypic traits in the context of comparative studies. A popular approach is to model the evolution of continuously varying traits as a Brownian diffusion process acting on a phylogenetic tree. However, standard Brownian diffusion is quite restrictive and may not accurately characterize certain trait evolutionary processes. Here, we relax one of the major restrictions of standard Brownian diffusion by incorporating a nontrivial estimable mean into the process. We introduce a relaxed directional random walk (RDRW) model for th

SUBMITTER: Gill MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6075548 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature