Hemiplasy and homoplasy in the karyotypic phylogenies of mammals

Phylogenetic reconstructions are often plagued by difficulties in distinguishing phylogenetic signal (due to shared ancestry) from phylogenetic noise or homoplasy (due to character-state convergences or reversals). We use a new interpretive hypothesis, termed hemiplasy, to show how random lineage so...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 105; no. 38; pp. 14477 - 14481
Main Authors Robinson, Terence J, Ruiz-Herrera, Aurora, Avise, John C
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 23.09.2008
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
ancestry
Animals
Biological Sciences
Biological taxonomies
Chiroptera - classification
Chiroptera - genetics
Chromosome painting
Chromosomes
cladistics
Discordance
Elephants
Evolution
Evolution & development
Gene expression
Gene polymorphism
Genetics
Genomes
heterozygosity
homoplasy
Karyotyping
mammals
Mammals - classification
Mammals - genetics
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Polymorphism
Short Interspersed Nucleotide Elements
Shrews
Synteny
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Summary:Phylogenetic reconstructions are often plagued by difficulties in distinguishing phylogenetic signal (due to shared ancestry) from phylogenetic noise or homoplasy (due to character-state convergences or reversals). We use a new interpretive hypothesis, termed hemiplasy, to show how random lineage sorting might account for specific instances of seeming "phylogenetic discordance" among different chromosomal traits, or between karyotypic features and probable species phylogenies. We posit that hemiplasy is generally less likely for underdominant chromosomal polymorphisms (i.e., those with heterozygous disadvantage) than for neutral polymorphisms or especially for overdominant rearrangements (which should tend to be longer-lived), and we illustrate this concept by using examples from chiropterans and afrotherians. Chromosomal states are especially powerful in phylogenetic reconstructions because they offer strong signatures of common ancestry, but their evolutionary interpretations remain fully subject to the principles of cladistics and the potential complications of hemiplasy.
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Contributed by John C. Avise, July 31, 2008
Author contributions: T.J.R. and J.C.A. designed research; T.J.R. and A.R.-H. performed research; T.J.R. and A.R.-H. analyzed data; and T.J.R. and J.C.A. wrote the article.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0807433105