Description
This volume explores the latest techniques used to study environmental microbial evolution, with a focus on methods capable of addressing deep evolution at long timescales. The chapters in this book are organized into three parts. Part One introduces molecular dating approaches and time calibration ideas that allow for the determination of evolutionary timescales of microbial lineages. Part Two describes several advanced phylogenomic tools such as models for genome tree construction, a taxon sampling method, outgroup-independent tree-rooting methods, and gene family evolution models. Part Three covers techniques used to study trait evolution. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.
Cutting-edge and comprehensive, Environmental Microbial Evolution: Methods and Protocols is a valuable tool for all researchers who are interested in learning more about this important and evolving field.
Table of Contents
Dating Microbial Evolution with MCMCtree.- A Computational Protocol for Dating the Evolution of Cyanobacteria.- Standard Candles for Dating Microbial Lineages.- Relative Time Inference using Lateral Gene Transfers.- Estimating the Divergence Times of Alphaproteobacteria Based on Endosymbiosis and Eukaryotic Fossils.- Phylogenetic Analysis that Models Compositional Heterogeneity Over the Tree.- Assembling a Reference Phylogenomic Tree of Bacteria and Archaea by Summarizing Many Gene Phylogenies.- Testing Phylogenetic Stability with Variable Taxon Sampling.- Rooting Species Trees using Gene Tree-Species Tree Reconciliation.- Reconstructing Gene Gains and Losses with Badirate.- Deciphering Microbial Gene Family Evolution Using Duplication-Transfer-Loss Reconciliation and RANGER-DTL.- Ancestral State Reconstruction using BayesTraits.- An Integrated Method to Reconstruct Ancient Proteins.- Methodologies for Microbial Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction.- Reconstruction of State-Dependent Diversification: Integrating Phenotyping Traits into Molecular Phylogenies.- Lifestyle Evolution Analysis by Binary-State Speciation and Extinction (BiSSE) Model.- Assessing a Role of Genetic Drift for Deep-Time Evolutionary Events.
