MBE Advance Access originally published online on August 9, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2008 25(10):2241-2246; doi:10.1093/molbev/msn172
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Research Articles |
Subdivision in an Ancestral Species Creates Asymmetry in Gene Trees
Department of Integrative Biology, University of California at Berkeley
E-mail: slatkin{at}berkeley.edu.
Accepted for publication July 29, 2008.
We consider gene trees in three species for which the species tree is known. We show that population subdivision in ancestral species can lead to asymmetry in the frequencies of the two gene trees not concordant with the species tree and, if subdivision is extreme, cause the one of the nonconcordant gene trees to be more probable than the concordant gene tree. Although published data for the human–chimp–gorilla clade and for three species of Drosophila show asymmetry consistent with our model, sequencing error could also account for observed patterns. We show that substantial levels of persistent ancestral subdivision are needed to account for the observed levels of asymmetry found in these two studies.
Key Words: gene genealogy transspecies polymorphism lineage sorting
Koichiro Tamura, Associate Editor