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How would you reconstruct the phylogeny to see through that mess? We're not even talking about computational complexity yet. Simply, how do you see through a ra
by niels_olson 10y ago
How would you reconstruct the phylogeny to see through that mess? We're not even talking about computational complexity yet. Simply, how do you see through a random number of random DNA fragments being inserted in random places of random genomes at random intervals over a billion years?
- civilian 10y agoHmmm I see what you're saying. It's a mess but I optimistically think it's still something we will be able to tease out, by looking at many genes in a genome. FWIW, It was recently estimated that 2% of core genes per genome are from HGT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer_in_evolution#Resolution_of_uncertainty_with_phylogenomics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer_in_ev... It makes HGT fairly identifiable and gives us a lot of non-transfered genes to work with when reconstructing a tree.