Abstract Detail

Mycological Section

Doyle, Vinson P. [1], Faircloth, Brant C. [2].

The utility of ultraconserved elements for inferring phylogenies in the Fungi.

Many different classes of markers have been used to make genome-wide inferences of evolutionary history. However, the suitability of some marker classes for phylogenomics has been called into question and may be difficult to apply across deep divergences. One class of markers, ultraconserved elements (UCEs), has gained favor among systematic biologists due to conservation of core regions across several hundred million years of divergence, broad genomic distribution, ability to resolve divergences across deep and shallow timescales, and high recovery rate in non-model species. UCEs have been used to address several longstanding controversies in systematic biology, but have not been applied in the Fungi, despite having been identified in several species of Saccharomyces a decade ago. We have identified ultraconserved elements in the Fungi utilizing published genomic data that are shared across several hundred million years of evolution. These conserved regions, plus flanking variable sequence, allow us to infer accepted relationships in divergent groups and our results suggest UCEs will be useful for addressing phylogenetic hypotheses across diverse lineages of Fungi and timescales of fungal species divergence. Insight gained from this in silico study will enable the development of tools to address a broad range of evolutionary and ecological questions in the Fungi.

1 - Louisiana State University, 302 Life Sciences, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803, USA
2 - Louisiana State University, 202 Life Sciences, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803, USA

Keywords:
ultraconserved elements
phylogenomics.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 40
Location: Salon 1/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2015
Time: 11:30 AM
Number: 40006
Abstract ID:860
Candidate for Awards:None