Assessing Confidence in Root Placement on Phylogenies: An Empirical Study Using Nonreversible Models for Mammals

Suha Naser-Khdour*, Bui Quang Minh, Robert Lanfear

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    23 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Using time-reversible Markov models is a very common practice in phylogenetic analysis, because although we expect many of their assumptions to be violated by empirical data, they provide high computational efficiency. However, these models lack the ability to infer the root placement of the estimated phylogeny. In order to compensate for the inability of these models to root the tree, many researchers use external information such as using outgroup taxa or additional assumptions such as molecular clocks. In this study, we investigate the utility of nonreversible models to root empirical phylogenies and introduce a new bootstrap measure, the rootstrap, which provides information on the statistical support for any given root position. [Bootstrap; nonreversible models; phylogenetic inference; root estimation.]

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)959-972
    Number of pages14
    JournalSystematic Biology
    Volume71
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2022

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