The Implications of Incongruence between Gene Tree and Species Tree Topologies for Divergence Time Estimation.

ABSTRACT: Phylogenetic analyses are increasingly being performed with data sets that incorporate hundreds of loci. Due to incomplete lineage sorting, hybridization, and horizontal gene transfer, the gene trees for these loci may often have topologies that differ from each other and from the species tree. The effect of these topological incongruences on divergence time estimation has not been fully investigated. Using a series of simulation experiments and empirical analyses, we demonstrate that when topological incongruence between gene trees and the species tree is not accounted for, the temporal duration of branches in regions of the species tree that are affected by incongruence is underestimated, whilst the duration of other branches is considerably overestimated. This effect becomes more pronou

SUBMITTER: Carruthers T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9366463 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature