Antonis Rokas: Incongruence in the Tree of Life

By Antonis Rokas, Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbild University, USA

The use of genome-scale amounts of data and sophisticated statistical phylogenetic approaches have greatly aided the reconstruction of a broad sketch of the tree of life and resolved many of its branches. However, incongruence—the inference of conflicting evolutionary histories stemming from a multitude of analytical and biological factors—remains pervasive, especially for certain key branches in life’s history. In my talk, I will discuss the factors that drive incongruence; methodological advances to diagnose and handle incongruence; and important avenues for future research. Detecting and understanding the causes of incongruence in phylogenomic data sets is essential for understanding the process of phylogenesis and for the accurate reconstruction and interpretation of the tree of life.

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