Codon Use and Aversion is Largely Phylogenetically Conserved Across the Tree of Life
Submission
Authors: Justin Miller, Lauren McKinnon, Michael Whiting, Perry Ridge
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Submitted: July 23, 2018
Currently With Editor
Novelty of Approach
-Analyzes codon conservation in different taxonomic groups
-Provides a statistical means to identify non-random parsimony informative characters
-Describes the breadth of complete codon aversion throughout the Tree of Life
Results
-Codon usages are 1,109x more likely than random to follow the Open Tree of Life.
-We analyzed 890,814 codons from 12,337 species across all kingdoms of life.
-We confirm turtles as sister taxa to archosaurs.
-We provide a framework to analyze codon usages against any phylogeny.
Implications
-Statistical approach can be used on any character
-Shows that complete codon aversion is maintained through evolutionary time
-Provides a method to test different tree hypotheses
Very Unlikely Character State Distributions
Statistical Evaluation of Taxonomic Groups