Bayesian species delimitation using multilocus sequence data

In the absence of recent admixture between species, bipartitions of individuals in gene trees that are shared across loci can potentially be used to infer the presence of two or more species. This approach to species delimitation via molecular sequence data has been constrained by the fact that genealogies for individual loci are often poorly resolved and that ancestral lineage sorting, hybridization, and other population genetic processes can lead to discordant gene trees. Here we use a Bayesian modeling approach to generate the posterior probabilities of species assignments taking account of uncertainties due to unknown gene trees and the ancestral coalescent process. For tractability, we rely on a…

• AC
  Adolph C. and Mary Sprague Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California Berkeley
• CA
  Chinese Academy of Sciences
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• DF
  Directorate for Biological Sciences
• IO
  Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences