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Related Concept Videos

Types of Selection01:46

Types of Selection

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Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
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Phylogenetic Trees03:21

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Phylogeny is concerned with the evolutionary diversification of organisms or groups of organisms. A group of organisms with a name is called a taxon (singular). Taxa (plural) can span different levels of the evolutionary hierarchy. For instance, the group containing all birds is a taxon (comprising the class Aves), and the group of all species of daisies (the genus Bellis) is a taxon. Phylogenies can likewise include just one genus (i.e., depict species relationships) or span an entire kingdom.
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The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
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Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
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A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts
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Species Selection Regime and Phylogenetic Tree Shape.

G Anthony Verboom1, Florian C Boucher2,3, David D Ackerly4,5

  • 1Bolus Herbarium and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa.

Systematic Biology
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Summary

Species selection, driven by heritable traits, significantly shapes phylogenetic tree imbalance and branching patterns. Understanding trait-dependent diversification dynamics is key to interpreting evolutionary history and tree shape signatures.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Phylogenetics
  • Computational Biology

Background:

  • Species selection, the influence of heritable traits on lineage diversification rates, offers a framework for understanding trait-diversification-phylogeny relationships.
  • The nature of diversification landscapes, which map species diversification propensity against traits, remains largely unexplored.
  • Real phylogenetic trees often exhibit imbalance and frequent deep branching events, suggesting complex underlying diversification processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and apply a novel time-stratified extension of the QuaSSE model to explore trait-dependent diversification.
  • To investigate how different species selection regimes (Gaussian, skewed) influence phylogenetic tree shape.
  • To empirically test the link between environmental dynamics, trait-dependent diversification, and tree shape using the Greater Cape Floristic Region flora.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a time-stratified extension of the QuaSSE model incorporating static or shifting Gaussian/skewed-Gaussian functions for trait-dependent speciation/extinction rates.
  • Utilized simulations to demonstrate that trait-dependent diversification processes can generate imbalanced trees with frequent deep branching.
  • Empirically analyzed phylogenetic trees of Cape flora lineages from stable versus environmentally dynamic regions (Late Miocene-Pliocene).

Main Results:

  • Simulations showed that trait-dependent diversification processes naturally lead to imbalanced phylogenetic trees with more deep branching events.
  • Specific species selection models (Gaussian-speciation, skewed-speciation, Gaussian-extinction) produced distinct tree shape signatures.
  • Empirical analysis revealed that lineages in dynamic environments exhibited less balanced trees, more recent branching, and stronger trait-diversification correlations compared to those in stable environments.

Conclusions:

  • Species selection is a significant factor in shaping phylogenetic tree architecture.
  • Distinct tree shape metrics can potentially identify the underlying species selection regimes.
  • Further development of probabilistic frameworks is needed to rigorously assess diversification scenarios based on tree shape.