Phylogenomic analysis reveals extensive phylogenetic mosaicism in the human GPCR superfamily

A novel high throughput phylogenomic analysis (HTP) was applied to the rhodopsin G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) family. Instances of phylogenetic mosaicism between receptors were found to be frequent, often as instances of correlated mosaicism and repeated mosaicism. A null data set was constructed with the same phylogenetic topology as the rhodopsin GPCRs. Comparison of the two data sets revealed that mosaicism was found in GPCRs in a higher frequency than would be expected by homoplasy or the effects of topology alone. Various evolutionary models of differential conservation, recombination and homoplasy are explored which could result in the patterns observed in this analysis. We find that the results are most consistent with frequent recombination events. A complex evolutionary history is illustrated in which it is likely frequent recombination has endowed GPCRs with new functions. The pattern of mosaicism is shown to be informative for functional prediction for orphan receptors. HTP analysis is complementary to conventional phylogenomic analyses revealing mosaicism that would not otherwise have been detectable through conventional phylogenetics.