Evaluating Approaches to Multilocus Species Tree Inference: Assessing Methods and Genomic Regions Using New World Orioles (Icterus)

推断近亲物种的进化树仍然是完成生命树的主要障碍。例如，亲缘关系密切的动物物种的进化树(系统发育树)通常依赖于单个基因区域--线粒体DNA。最近，已经开发出新的统计方法来分析来自整个核基因组的多个基因区域的数据。然而，这些新的“树种”方法还没有得到严格的比较。该项目将使用一个研究得很好的鸟类属(新大陆金莺，黄貂属)以及来自澳大利亚的两个鲜为人知的属(布切鸟，Cracticus；红知更鸟，Petroica)来比较物种树方法应用于密切相关物种的表现。该项目将在鸟类系统学、DNA测序和基因组数据的生物信息学分析方面培训博士后研究人员、博士生和本科生。这项研究将为“主动学习”练习提供信息，以教育学生如何使用DNA数据来推断物种关系，这在从疾病生物和入侵物种到生物多样性保护的一切领域都有重要的应用。这个物种树项目和相关的教育活动将促进对系统发育的理解，并导致有助于解决整个生命树上密切相关物种之间的关系的进展。

Inferring evolutionary trees for closely related species remains a major obstacle to completing the Tree of Life. For example, evolutionary trees (phylogenies) of closely related animal species have generally relied on a single gene region - mitochondrial DNA. Recently, new statistical methods have been developed to analyze data from multiple gene regions from throughout the nuclear genome. However, these new "species tree" methods have not been rigorously compared. The project will use a well-studied bird genus (New World orioles, Icterus), as well as two poorly known genera from Australia (butcherbirds, Cracticus; red robins, Petroica) to compare the performance of species tree methods as applied to closely related species. The project will train postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, and undergraduates in avian systematics, DNA sequencing, and bioinformatic analyses of genomic data. This research will inform "active learning" exercises to educate students about how DNA data are used to infer species relationships, which has important applications for everything from disease organisms and invasive species to biodiversity conservation. This project on species trees and the associated educational activities will promote the understanding of phylogenies and lead to advances that will help resolve relationships for closely related species across the entire Tree of Life.