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Comment
. 2009 Jun 2;106(22):8799-800.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0904103106. Epub 2009 May 26.

Natural selection and phylogenetic analysis

Affiliations
Comment

Natural selection and phylogenetic analysis

Scott V Edwards. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Ways in which natural selection can influence phylogenetic reconstruction. Colors of branches correspond to different species from which sequences are sampled, except in E, wherein colors indicate different rates of evolution at a site. (A) A gene tree of five species whose evolution is largely neutral or dominated by stabilizing selection. (B) Violations of the molecular clock caused by directional selection along lineages. (C and D) Contrast between shared polymorphisms commonly observed between closely related species at neutral loci (C) versus reciprocal monophyly of alleles between closely related species driven by selective sweeps (D). (E) Heterotachy, the change in rate of sites over time, may or may not be driven by natural selection. (F) Balancing selection can create patterns of “transspecies evolution,” such as observed at genes of the major histocompatibility complex. (G) Selection-driven convergence of amino acid substitutions (starbursts) in unrelated lineages causes misleading phylogenies, drawing lineages together that are in fact unrelated (true relationships indicated by dotted lines).

Comment on

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