Dog as an outgroup to human and mouse.

Gerton Lunter

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030074

Abstract

Dog as an outgroup to human and mouse.

Highlights

In a recent contribution to PLoS Computational Biology, Cannarozzi, Schneider, and Gonnet published evidence that rodents form an outgroup to human and dog [1], in disagreement with several recent studies suggesting that the dog is an outgroup to the primate–rodent clade [2,3]
While sequence analysis is more objective than morphology, it emerged that it has its own set of issues, and some phylogenies remain contentious
I challenge their findings, providing new evidence in support of the consensus phylogeny, and suggest that their results may have been biased by long branch attraction (LBA), a known issue in molecular phylogenetic inference

Summary

Introduction

In a recent contribution to PLoS Computational Biology, Cannarozzi, Schneider, and Gonnet published evidence that rodents form an outgroup to human and dog [1], in disagreement with several recent studies suggesting that the dog is an outgroup to the primate–rodent clade [2,3]. In [1], Cannarozzi et al suggested that this contention extends to the phylogeny of human, mouse, and dog, and inferred a phylogeny of these species that disagrees with a recently emerging consensus. I challenge their findings, providing new evidence in support of the consensus phylogeny, and suggest that their results may have been biased by long branch attraction (LBA), a known issue in molecular phylogenetic inference.

Results

Conclusion