Reconstruction of Certain Phylogenetic Networks from Their Tree-Average Distances

Trees are commonly utilized to describe the evolutionary history of a collection of biological species, in which case the trees are called phylogenetic trees. Often these are reconstructed from data by making use of distances between extant species corresponding to the leaves of the tree. Because of increased recognition of the possibility of hybridization events, more attention is being given to the use of phylogenetic networks that are not necessarily trees. This paper describes the reconstruction of certain such networks from the tree-average distances between the leaves. For a certain class of phylogenetic networks, a polynomial-time method is presented to reconstruct the network from the tree-average distances. The method is proved to work if there is a single reticulation cycle.     

Microsatellite Behavior with Range Constraints: Parameter Estimation and Improved Distances for Use in Phylogenetic Reconstruction

A symmetric stepwise mutation model with reflecting boundaries is employed to evaluate microsatellite evolution under range constraints. Methods of estimating range constraints and mutation rates under the assumptions of the model are developed. Least squares procedures are employed to improve molecular distance estimation for use in phylogenetic reconstruction in the case where range constraints and mutation rates vary across loci. The bias and accuracy of these methods are evaluated using computer simulations, and they are compared to previously existing methods which do not assume range constraints. Range constraints are seen to have a substantial impact on phylogenetic conclusions based on molecular distances, particularly for more divergent taxa. Results indicate that if range constraints are in effect, the methods developed here should be used in both the preliminary planning and final analysis of phylogenetic studies employing microsatellites. It is also seen that in order to make accurate phylogenetic inferences under range constraints, a larger number of loci are required than in their absence.     

Reconstruction of Some Hybrid Phylogenetic Networks with Homoplasies from Distances

Suppose G is a phylogenetic network given as a rooted acyclic directed graph. Let X be a subset of the vertex set containing the root, all leaves, and all vertices of outdegree 1. A vertex is “regular” if it has a unique parent, and “hybrid” if it has two parents. Consider the case where each gene is binary. Assume an idealized system of inheritance in which no homoplasies occur at regular vertices, but homoplasies can occur at hybrid vertices. Under our model, the distances between taxa are shown to be described using a system of numbers called “originating weights” and “homoplasy weights.” Assume that the distances are known between all members of X. Sufficient conditions are given such that the graph G and all the originating and homoplasy weights can be reconstructed from the given distances.     

Unique Reconstruction of Tree-Like Phylogenetic Networks from Distances Between Leaves

In this paper, a class of rooted acyclic directed graphs (called TOM-networks) is defined that generalizes rooted trees and allows for models including hybridization events. It is argued that the defining properties are biologically plausible. Each TOM-network has a distance defined between each pair of vertices. For a TOM-network N, suppose that the set X consisting of the leaves and the root is known, together with the distances between members of X. It is proved that N is uniquely determined from this information and can be reconstructed in polynomial time. Thus, given exact distance information on the leaves and root, the phylogenetic network can be uniquely recovered, provided that it is a TOM-network. An outgroup can be used instead of a true root.     

An Evaluation of Genetic Distances for Use with Microsatellite Loci

Mutations of alleles at microsatellite loci tend to result in alleles with repeat scores similar to those of the alleles from which they were derived. Therefore the difference in repeat score between alleles carries information about the amount of time that has passed since they shared a common ancestral allele. This information is ignored by genetic distances based on the infinite alleles model. Here we develop a genetic distance based on the stepwise mutation model that includes allelic repeat score. We adapt earlier treatments of the stepwise mutation model to show analytically that the expectation of this distance is a linear function of time. We then use computer simulations to evaluate the overall reliability of this distance and to compare it with allele sharing and Nei's distance. We find that no distance is uniformly superior for all purposes, but that for phylogenetic reconstruction of taxa that are sufficiently diverged, our new distance is preferable.     

Microsatellite Genetic Distances with Range Constraints: Analytic Description and Problems of Estimation

Statistical properties of the symmetric stepwise-mutation model for microsatellite evolution are studied under the assumption that the number of repeats is strictly bounded above and below. An exact analytic expression is found for the expected products of the frequencies of alleles separated by k repeats. This permits characterization of the asymptotic behavior of our distances D(1) and (δμ)(2) under range constraints. Based on this characterization we develop transformations that partially restore linearity when allele size is restricted. We show that the appropriate transformation cannot be applied in the case of varying mutation rates (β) and range constraints (R) because of statistical difficulties. In the special case of no variation in β and R across loci, however, the transformation simplifies to a usable form and results in a distance much more linear with time than distances developed for an infinite range. Although analytically incorrect in the case of variation in β and R, the simpler transformation is surprisingly insensitive to variation in these parameters, suggesting that it may have considerable utility in phylogenetic studies.     

DNA聚合酶X家族系统发育树的重建

随着DNA聚合酶X家族成员数量的增加,特别是两个昆虫痘病毒(entomopoxvirus,EPV)成员的加入,家族内部的系统发育关系需要重新检查。总共37个来自不同物种的DNA聚合酶x家族成员的核心结构域序列被分析。结果显示：系统发育树呈现的家族内部系统发育关系基本上与家族成员的物种分布状态相吻合,其中,病毒成员与真核生物DNA聚合酶beta(polβ)亚群构成姐妹群,提示病毒成员可能起源于真核细胞的相应基因。亚群的歧异时间、基因结构比较和同线基因保守性分析显示,哺乳动物DNA聚合酶基因(Pol M)可能起源于脱氧核苷酸末端转移酶基因(TdT)最近发生的基因重复。     

利用DNA序列构建系统树的方法介绍

利用DNA序列进行系统发生分析是分子进化研究的必要手段。构建系统树的方法有距离法、简约法、最大似然法以及贝叶斯推断法等。要解决特定的系统发生问题,首先要挑选合理的分类群及序列,尽量减少数据的偏倚,然后选择构树方法,最后还要对结果进行评价并给出进化学上的解释。本文讨论了挑选数据的原则及存在的问题,介绍了几种构树方法的基本原理及步骤,并列举了它们的优缺点。Abstract: Construction of phylogenetic trees is a key means in molecular evolutionary studies. The methods of constructing phylogenetic trees include the distance-based methods, parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference methods. To resolve a special problem about phylogeny, several notices are necessary: first, to select the reasonable data at less bias as possible; second, to choose the proper method to reconstruct phylogenetic tree; third, to evaluate the conclusions and explain them on the field of evolution. The present paper provides a brief introduction of the principles of data selection and tree-construction methods, and discusses about their advantage and disadvantage points.     

Tree Reconciliation: Reconstruction of Species Phylogeny by Phylogenetic Gene Trees

It is well known that phylogenetic trees derived from different protein families are often incongruent. This is explained by mapping errors and by the essential processes of gene duplication, loss, and horizontal transfer. Therefore, the problem is to derive a consensus tree best fitting the given set of gene trees. This work presents a new method of deriving this tree. The method is different from the existing ones, since it considers not only the topology of the initial gene trees, but also the reliability of their branches. Thereby one can explicitly take into account the possible errors in the gene trees caused by the absence of reliable models of sequence evolution, by uneven evolution of different gene families and taxonomic groups, etc.     

新疆8个绵羊品种遗传多样性和系统发生关系的微卫星分析

为分析新疆北疆地区主要绵羊品种的遗传多样性和系统发生关系,利用10个微卫星标记,采用PCR扩增,12％非变性聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳、Sanguinetti银染法显色,对新疆北疆地区8个品种、1个杂交一代绵羊群体遗传多样性进行了检测,统计了各群体的等位基因组成、平均有效等位基因数(E)和平均基因纯合率,利用等位基因频率计算出各群体的平均遗传杂合度(h)、多态信息含量(PIC)和群体间的遗传距离。利用分子进化遗传分析软件,采用邻结法构建系统发生树;同时根据等位基因频率,利用PHYLIP(3．6)分析软件,采用最大似然法构建系统发生树,应用白举检验估计系统树中结点的白引导值,并进行了系统发生分析。结果表明：10个微卫星位点在9个绵羊群体中的多态信息含量除BMI824、MAF65为低、中度多态外,其余8个微卫星均为高度多态,可作为有效的遗传标记用于各绵羊品种的遗传多样性和系统发生关系的分析;所有绵羊群体的平均PIC(0．5631)、h(0．5721)和E(2．9)均低于国外其他品种的绵羊,其基因多态性和遗传多样性相对贫乏;新疆本地土种阿勒泰羊、哈萨克羊和巴什拜羊与国外引进绵羊品种及混有外血的本地培育品种遗传距离较远,他们聚为不同的两类,各绵羊品种的分子系统发生关系与其来源、育成史、分化及地理分布基本一致。     

Reconstructing Unrooted Phylogenetic Trees from Symbolic Ternary Metrics

Böcker and Dress (Adv Math 138:105–125, 1998) presented a 1-to-1 correspondence between symbolically dated rooted trees and symbolic ultrametrics. We consider the corresponding problem for unrooted trees. More precisely, given a tree T with leaf set X and a proper vertex coloring of its interior vertices, we can map every triple of three different leaves to the color of its median vertex. We characterize all ternary maps that can be obtained in this way in terms of 4- and 5-point conditions, and we show that the corresponding tree and its coloring can be reconstructed from a ternary map that satisfies those conditions. Further, we give an additional condition that characterizes whether the tree is binary, and we describe an algorithm that reconstructs general trees in a bottom-up fashion.     

雪豹的微卫星DNA遗传多样性

利用微卫星DNA标记,对来自青海囊谦县、治多县以及甘肃阿克塞县3个地区的36份雪豹(Panthera uncia)粪便DNA样品进行了遗传多样性研究。结果显示,在8个微卫星位点上共检测到57个等位基因,有效等位基因数为2.190~5.488,平均每个位点的等位基因数为7.130,基因频率分布不均匀;期望杂合度为0.543~0.847,平均0.759;多态信息含量为0.458~0.829,平均0.722;表明这8个微卫星位点均为高度多态性位点,有较丰富的遗传多样性。3个样地雪豹居群之间的遗传距离与地理距离相关,地理距离最近的青海省囊谦县和治多县的雪豹居群遗传距离最小。根据雪豹平均遗传分化度Fst(0.053)、平均基因流(4.488)以及STRUCTURE聚类分析结果(当K=1时,ln P(D)值最大),推测3个居群间虽然有一定的遗传距离,但均来自同一个种群,暂无分化现象。     

Identification of Horizontal Gene Transfer from Phylogenetic Gene Trees

We suggest a new procedure to search for the genes with horizontal transfer events in their evolutionary history. The search is based on analysis of topology difference between the phylogenetic trees of gene (protein) groups and the corresponding phylogenetic species trees. Numeric values are introduced to measure the discrepancy between the trees. This approach was applied to analyze 40 prokaryotic genomes classified into 132 classes of orthologs. This resulted in a list of the candidate genes for which the hypothesis of horizontal transfer in evolution looks true.     

三个黄颡鱼群体遗传多样性及亲缘关系的微卫星标记分析

利用微卫星标记技术对3个黄颡鱼群体(W S、TE和QF)的遗传多样性及亲缘关系进行研究。通过筛选的30个引物对3个黄颡鱼群体基因组DNA的扩增,获得了19个有效引物,其中有6个微卫星位点具有多态性,并计算出了3个黄颡鱼群体间的遗传相似系数和遗传距离,TE和QF群体间的遗传相似系数最大(0.8736),遗传距离最小(0.1790);W S和QF群体间的遗传相似系数最小(0.7284),遗传距离最大(0.2768)。同时运用聚类分析(UPGMA)的方法建立了3个黄颡鱼群体的系统发生树。     

布氏罗非鱼微卫星位点筛选和群体遗传多样性分析

为阐明布氏罗非(Tilapia buttikoferi)群体遗传变异和遗传结构状况,采用50个尼罗罗非鱼特异性的微卫星分子标记对45个布氏罗非鱼个体进行遗传检测.结果有27对引物能获得稳定的特异性条带,占总数的54%,其中16个多态性微卫星座位共检测出52个等位基因.每个座位的等位基因数为2～6之间,平均每个座位为3.24;平均观测杂合度(Ho)为0.5266,平均期望杂合度(He)为0.5237,平均多态信息含量为0.4652,表明布氏罗非鱼群体遗传多样性较丰富,种群结构处于合理状态.     

Lassoing and Corralling Rooted Phylogenetic Trees

The construction of a dendogram on a set of individuals is a key component of a genomewide association study. However, even with modern sequencing technologies the distances on the individuals required for the construction of such a structure may not always be reliable making it tempting to exclude them from an analysis. This, in turn, results in an input set for dendogram construction that consists of only partial distance information, which raises the following fundamental question. For what (proper) subsets of a dendogram’s leaf set can we uniquely reconstruct the dendogram from the distances that it induces on the elements of such a subset? By formalizing a dendogram in terms of an edge-weighted, rooted, phylogenetic tree on a pre-given finite set X with |X|≥3 whose edge-weighting is equidistant and subsets Y of X for which the distances between every pair of elements in Y is known in terms of sets of 2-subsets of X, we investigate this problem from the perspective of when such a tree is lassoed, that is, uniquely determined by the elements in . For this, we consider four different formalizations of the idea of “uniquely determining” giving rise to four distinct types of lassos. We present characterizations for all of them in terms of the child-edge graphs of the interior vertices of such a tree. Our characterizations imply in particular that in case the tree in question is binary, then all four types of lasso must coincide.     

尼西鸡遗传多样性微卫星标记分析

尼西鸡抗病力强,产蛋性能高,适应高海拔及寒冷的气候条件,是具有独特群体遗传特性的高原地方鸡种。为了对其有效保护和合理利用提供遗传背景资料,筛选了家鸡基因组24条染色体上的33个微卫星标记,对随机选取的50个尼西鸡个体进行多态性检测,共检测到122个等位基因,每个座位平均等位基因数为3·7个。该群体平均多态信息含量和平均杂合度分别为0·5514和0·6350,大染色体较小染色体的微卫星多态性程度高。表明尼西鸡属多态性较丰富的群体。     

中国沙皮犬微卫星DNA分析的遗传多样性

运用20对微卫星引物对来自中国广东省的92份沙皮犬血液样品(骨嘴型沙皮犬21只,骨肉嘴型沙皮犬29只,肉嘴型沙皮犬42只)进行了遗传背景的检测。结果表明,20个多态性微卫星座位共检测到272个等位基因,平均每个座位为13.6个。中国沙皮犬群体的平均杂合度为0.8259,所有微卫星标记座位的多态信息含量(PIC)在0.5352到0.9226之间,说明中国沙皮犬群体存在较为丰富的遗传多样性。遗传距离和聚类分析结果显示,3种类型沙皮犬之间已产生了一定的遗传分化。上述结果为中国沙皮犬细分为不同的品系以及澄清中国沙皮犬种质资源的混乱状况提供了理论依据。     

DNA Fingerprinting and Phylogenetic Analysis of WNIN Rat Strain and Its Obese Mutants Using Microsatellite Markers

Wistar is the oldest rat strain to be introduced in biomedical research, and various stocks of this strain are maintained in laboratories across the globe. The Wistar strain maintained in our facilities is 85 years old and is not typed genetically so far. Recently, two obese mutant rat strains evolved from this stock, one with euglycemia and the other with impaired glucose tolerance. These mutant rat strains, along with the parental Wistar stock and two other rat strains maintained in our facilities (WKY and F-344), were subjected to PCR-based DNA fingerprinting using microsatellite markers to evolve molecular signatures unique to them. Of the 96 markers screened, we identified a marker, leukosianin, that shows polymorphism between the strains tested and thus appears to be quite useful for rat strain identification. Also, the microsatellite data generated were subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis to generate a dendrogram and to estimate the phylogenetic closeness and distance between the rat strains tested. It was observed that the Wistar strain and its mutants maintained in our facility are genetically distinct and phylogenetically separate from the other two standard strains WKY and F-344.     

Relating Phylogenetic Trees to Transmission Trees of Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Transmission events are the fundamental building blocks of the dynamics of any infectious disease. Much about the epidemiology of a disease can be learned when these individual transmission events are known or can be estimated. Such estimations are difficult and generally feasible only when detailed epidemiological data are available. The genealogy estimated from genetic sequences of sampled pathogens is another rich source of information on transmission history. Optimal inference of transmission events calls for the combination of genetic data and epidemiological data into one joint analysis. A key difficulty is that the transmission tree, which describes the transmission events between infected hosts, differs from the phylogenetic tree, which describes the ancestral relationships between pathogens sampled from these hosts. The trees differ both in timing of the internal nodes and in topology. These differences become more pronounced when a higher fraction of infected hosts is sampled. We show how the phylogenetic tree of sampled pathogens is related to the transmission tree of an outbreak of an infectious disease, by the within-host dynamics of pathogens. We provide a statistical framework to infer key epidemiological and mutational parameters by simultaneously estimating the phylogenetic tree and the transmission tree. We test the approach using simulations and illustrate its use on an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The approach unifies existing methods in the emerging field of phylodynamics with transmission tree reconstruction methods that are used in infectious disease epidemiology.