Phylogenetic Signal, Evolutionary Process, and Rate

A recent advance in the phylogenetic comparative analysis of continuous traits has been explicit, model-based measurement of "phylogenetic signal" in data sets composed of observations collected from species related by a phylogenetic tree. Phylogenetic signal is a measure of the statistica...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Systematic biology 2008-08, Vol.57 (4), p.591-601
Main Authors: Revell, Liam J., Harmon, Luke J., Collar, David C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological taxonomies
Brownian motion
Comparative method
Computer Simulation
Evolution
Evolution, Molecular
Evolutionary genetics
evolutionary lability
Evolutionary processes
functional constraint
Genetic Drift
Models, Genetic
Mutation
niche conservatism
Phenotypic traits
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
quantitative characters
Stabilizing selection
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A recent advance in the phylogenetic comparative analysis of continuous traits has been explicit, model-based measurement of "phylogenetic signal" in data sets composed of observations collected from species related by a phylogenetic tree. Phylogenetic signal is a measure of the statistical dependence among species' trait values due to their phylogenetic relationships. Although phylogenetic signal is a measure of pattern (statistical dependence), there has nonetheless been a widespread propensity in the literature to attribute this pattern to aspects of the evolutionary process or rate. This may be due, in part, to the perception that high evolutionary rate necessarily results in low phylogenetic signal; and, conversely, that low evolutionary rate or stabilizing selection results in high phylogenetic signal (due to the resulting high resemblance between related species). In this study, we use individual-based numerical simulations on stochastic phylogenetic trees to clarify the relationship between phylogenetic signal, rate, and evolutionary process. Under the simplest model for quantitative trait evolution, homogeneous rate genetic drift, there is no relation between evolutionary rate and phylogenetic signal. For other circumstances, such as functional constraint, fluctuating selection, niche conservatism, and evolutionary heterogeneity, the relationship between process, rate, and phylogenetic signal is complex. For these reasons, we recommend against interpretations of evolutionary process or rate based on estimates of phylogenetic signal.
ISSN:1063-5157
1076-836X
DOI:10.1080/10635150802302427