TitlePhylogenomics Reveals Ancient Gene Tree Discordance in the Amphibian Tree of Life.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2021
AuthorsHime PM, Lemmon AR, Lemmon ECMoriarty, Prendini E, Brown JM, Thomson RC, Kratovil JD, Noonan BP, R Pyron A, Peloso PLV, Kortyna ML, J Keogh S, Donnellan SC, Mueller RLockridge, Raxworthy CJ, Kunte K, Ron SR, Das S, Gaitonde N, Green DM, Labisko J, Che J, Weisrock DW
JournalSyst Biol
Volume70
Issue1
Pagination49-66
Date Published2020 May 02
ISSN1076-836X
Abstract

Molecular phylogenies have yielded strong support for many parts of the amphibian Tree of Life, but poor support for the resolution of deeper nodes, including relationships among families and orders. To clarify these relationships, we provide a phylogenomic perspective on amphibian relationships by developing a taxon-specific Anchored Hybrid Enrichment protocol targeting hundreds of conserved exons which are effective across the class. After obtaining data from 220 loci for 286 species (representing 94% of the families and 44% of the genera), we estimate a phylogeny for extant amphibians and identify gene tree-species tree conflict across the deepest branches of the amphibian phylogeny. We perform locus-by-locus genealogical interrogation of alternative topological hypotheses for amphibian monophyly, focusing on interordinal relationships. We find that phylogenetic signal deep in the amphibian phylogeny varies greatly across loci in a manner that is consistent with incomplete lineage sorting in the ancestral lineage of extant amphibians. Our results overwhelmingly support amphibian monophyly and a sister relationship between frogs and salamanders, consistent with the Batrachia hypothesis. Species tree analyses converge on a small set of topological hypotheses for the relationships among extant amphibian families. These results clarify several contentious portions of the amphibian Tree of Life, which in conjunction with a set of vetted fossil calibrations, support a surprisingly younger timescale for crown and ordinal amphibian diversification than previously reported. More broadly, our study provides insight into the sources, magnitudes, and heterogeneity of support across loci in phylogenomic data sets.

DOI10.1093/sysbio/syaa034
Alternate JournalSyst. Biol.
PubMed ID32359157