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Positive correlations between molecular and morphological rates of evolution
1Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. herves@bio.uio.no
Journal of Theoretical Biology
|March 20, 2010
Summary
Molecular and morphological evolution rates correlate positively, especially when including species tips in phylogenetic trees. This suggests a link between genotype and phenotype, with potential adaptive roles in molecular evolution.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Molecular Evolution
- Phylogenetics
Background:
- Understanding the relationship between molecular and morphological evolution is crucial for sequence evolution, phylogenetic reconstructions, and genotype-phenotype mapping.
- Previous studies have explored correlations between rates of molecular and morphological evolution, with varying results depending on methodology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between molecular and morphological evolutionary rates.
- To determine factors influencing the correlation strength, including the inclusion of extant species and the number of characters used in phylogenetic reconstruction.
Main Methods:
- Reconstruction of phylogenetic trees using both molecular and morphological characters.
- Calculation of evolutionary rates from branch lengths of the obtained phylogenetic trees.
- Systematic analysis of correlations between molecular and morphological rates under different conditions (e.g., with/without tips, varying character sets).
Main Results:
- Positive correlations were observed between molecular and morphological evolution rates, particularly when including extant species (tips).
- Excluding tips reduced statistical significance due to lower sample size and reliance on ancestral state reconstructions.
- Increased morphological characters and sequence lengths enhanced correlation strength.
- Analyses of plant and animal phylogenies revealed that sampling biases negatively impact these correlations.
Conclusions:
- Genotype and phenotype are demonstrably linked, supporting evolutionary genotype-phenotype mapping.
- Adaptive components likely play a role in molecular evolution.
- Phylogenetic reconstruction methods and data sampling significantly influence the interpretation of evolutionary rate correlations.
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