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GHOST: Recovering historical signal from heterotachously-evolved sequence alignments

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 06:08 authored by Crotty, SM, Minh, BQ, Bean, NG, Barbara HollandBarbara Holland, Tuke, J, Jermiin, LS, von Haeseler, A
Molecular sequence data that have evolved under the influence of heterotachous evolutionary processes are known to mislead phylogenetic inference. We introduce the General Heterogeneous evolution On a Single Topology (GHOST) model of sequence evolution, implemented under a maximum-likelihood framework in the phylogenetic program IQ-TREE (http://www.iqtree.org). Simulations show that using the GHOST model, IQ-TREE can accurately recover the tree topology, branch lengths and substitution model parameters from heterotachously-evolved sequences. We investigate the performance of the GHOST model on empirical data by sampling phylogenomic alignments of varying lengths from a plastome alignment. We then carry out inference under the GHOST model on a phylogenomic dataset composed of 248 genes from 16 taxa, where we find the GHOST model concurs with the currently accepted view, placing turtles as a sister lineage of archosaurs, in contrast to results obtained using traditional variable rates-across-sites models. Finally, we apply the model to a dataset composed of a sodium channel gene of 11 fish taxa, finding that the GHOST model is able to elucidate a subtle component of the historical signal, linked to the previously established convergent evolution of the electric organ in two geographically distinct lineages of electric fish. We compare inference under the GHOST model to partitioning by codon position and show that, owing to the minimization of model constraints, the GHOST model offers unique biological insights when applied to empirical data.

History

Publication title

Systematic Biology

Volume

69

Article number

syz051

Number

syz051

Pagination

249-264

ISSN

1063-5157

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Taylor & Francis Inc

Place of publication

325 Chestnut St, Suite 800, Philadelphia, USA, Pa, 19106

Rights statement

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists. All rights reserved.

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences; Expanding knowledge in the mathematical sciences

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