Likelihood inference of non-constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling.

Large-scale phylogenies provide a valuable source to study background diversification rates and investigate if the rates have changed over time. Unfortunately most large-scale, dated phylogenies are sparsely sampled (fewer than 5% of the described species) and taxon sampling is not uniform. Instead,...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sebastian Höhna
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3882215?pdf=render
_version_ 1819060165674008576
author Sebastian Höhna
author_facet Sebastian Höhna
author_sort Sebastian Höhna
collection DOAJ
description Large-scale phylogenies provide a valuable source to study background diversification rates and investigate if the rates have changed over time. Unfortunately most large-scale, dated phylogenies are sparsely sampled (fewer than 5% of the described species) and taxon sampling is not uniform. Instead, taxa are frequently sampled to obtain at least one representative per subgroup (e.g. family) and thus to maximize diversity (diversified sampling). So far, such complications have been ignored, potentially biasing the conclusions that have been reached. In this study I derive the likelihood of a birth-death process with non-constant (time-dependent) diversification rates and diversified taxon sampling. Using simulations I test if the true parameters and the sampling method can be recovered when the trees are small or medium sized (fewer than 200 taxa). The results show that the diversification rates can be inferred and the estimates are unbiased for large trees but are biased for small trees (fewer than 50 taxa). Furthermore, model selection by means of Akaike's Information Criterion favors the true model if the true rates differ sufficiently from alternative models (e.g. the birth-death model is recovered if the extinction rate is large and compared to a pure-birth model). Finally, I applied six different diversification rate models--ranging from a constant-rate pure birth process to a decreasing speciation rate birth-death process but excluding any rate shift models--on three large-scale empirical phylogenies (ants, mammals and snakes with respectively 149, 164 and 41 sampled species). All three phylogenies were constructed by diversified taxon sampling, as stated by the authors. However only the snake phylogeny supported diversified taxon sampling. Moreover, a parametric bootstrap test revealed that none of the tested models provided a good fit to the observed data. The model assumptions, such as homogeneous rates across species or no rate shifts, appear to be violated.
first_indexed 2024-12-21T14:22:39Z
format Article
id doaj.art-01447e7fb96b40419a5d624cca984e34
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1932-6203
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-21T14:22:39Z
publishDate 2014-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj.art-01447e7fb96b40419a5d624cca984e342022-12-21T19:00:43ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0191e8418410.1371/journal.pone.0084184Likelihood inference of non-constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling.Sebastian HöhnaLarge-scale phylogenies provide a valuable source to study background diversification rates and investigate if the rates have changed over time. Unfortunately most large-scale, dated phylogenies are sparsely sampled (fewer than 5% of the described species) and taxon sampling is not uniform. Instead, taxa are frequently sampled to obtain at least one representative per subgroup (e.g. family) and thus to maximize diversity (diversified sampling). So far, such complications have been ignored, potentially biasing the conclusions that have been reached. In this study I derive the likelihood of a birth-death process with non-constant (time-dependent) diversification rates and diversified taxon sampling. Using simulations I test if the true parameters and the sampling method can be recovered when the trees are small or medium sized (fewer than 200 taxa). The results show that the diversification rates can be inferred and the estimates are unbiased for large trees but are biased for small trees (fewer than 50 taxa). Furthermore, model selection by means of Akaike's Information Criterion favors the true model if the true rates differ sufficiently from alternative models (e.g. the birth-death model is recovered if the extinction rate is large and compared to a pure-birth model). Finally, I applied six different diversification rate models--ranging from a constant-rate pure birth process to a decreasing speciation rate birth-death process but excluding any rate shift models--on three large-scale empirical phylogenies (ants, mammals and snakes with respectively 149, 164 and 41 sampled species). All three phylogenies were constructed by diversified taxon sampling, as stated by the authors. However only the snake phylogeny supported diversified taxon sampling. Moreover, a parametric bootstrap test revealed that none of the tested models provided a good fit to the observed data. The model assumptions, such as homogeneous rates across species or no rate shifts, appear to be violated.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3882215?pdf=render
spellingShingle Sebastian Höhna
Likelihood inference of non-constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling.
PLoS ONE
title Likelihood inference of non-constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling.
title_full Likelihood inference of non-constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling.
title_fullStr Likelihood inference of non-constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling.
title_full_unstemmed Likelihood inference of non-constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling.
title_short Likelihood inference of non-constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling.
title_sort likelihood inference of non constant diversification rates with incomplete taxon sampling
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3882215?pdf=render
work_keys_str_mv AT sebastianhohna likelihoodinferenceofnonconstantdiversificationrateswithincompletetaxonsampling