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Molecular-clock methods for estimating evolutionary rates and timescales.

Simon Y W Ho¹, Sebastián Duchêne

¹School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.

Molecular Ecology

|October 8, 2014

Summary

Molecular clock methods estimate evolutionary rates and timescales using genetic data. This review covers various molecular clock models and techniques for analyzing evolutionary rate variation and calibrating evolutionary timescales.

Keywords:

Bayesian phylogenetics calibration lineage effects local clock rate variation relaxed clock

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Genetics
Bioinformatics

Background:

Molecular clocks are crucial for estimating evolutionary rates and timescales from genetic data.
Understanding evolutionary processes and mechanisms relies on these estimates.
Rate variation across genes and lineages necessitates diverse molecular clock methodologies.

Purpose of the Study:

To review various molecular clock methods and models.
To explain how evolutionary rate heterogeneity can be accommodated in analyses.
To describe techniques for calibration and model selection in molecular clock studies.

Main Methods:

Discussion of strict, local, discrete, and relaxed clock models.
Explanation of methods for handling evolutionary rate heterogeneity.
Overview of calibration techniques and model selection strategies for molecular clocks.

Main Results:

Diverse molecular clock methods exist, differing in statistical properties and ability to handle rate variation.
Various approaches accommodate evolutionary rate heterogeneity.
Techniques for calibration and model selection are available for molecular clock analyses.

Conclusions:

Choosing appropriate molecular clock models is challenging but feasible with available techniques.
The review provides a framework for understanding and applying molecular clock methods.
Future directions in molecular clock research are considered.