Generalizing Bayesian phylogenetics to infer shared evolutionary events.

ABSTRACT: Many processes of biological diversification can simultaneously affect multiple evolutionary lineages. Examples include multiple members of a gene family diverging when a region of a chromosome is duplicated, multiple viral strains diverging at a "super-spreading" event, and a geological event fragmenting whole communities of species. It is difficult to test for patterns of shared divergences predicted by such processes because all phylogenetic methods assume that lineages diverge independently. We introduce a Bayesian phylogenetic approach to relax the assumption of independent, bifurcating divergences by expanding the space of topologies to include trees with shared and multifurcating divergences. This allows us to jointly infer phylogenetic relationships, divergence times, and patterns

SUBMITTER: Oaks JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9304017 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature