Inferring rooted species trees from unrooted gene trees using approximate Bayesian computation

Abstract

Methods for inferring species trees from gene trees motivated by incomplete lineage sorting typically use either rooted gene trees to infer a rooted species tree, or use unrooted gene trees to infer an unrooted species tree, which is then typically rooted using one or more outgroups. Theoretically, however, it has been known since 2011 that it is possible to consistently infer the root of the species tree directly from unrooted gene trees without assuming an outgroup. Here, we use approximate Bayesian computation to infer the root of the species tree from unrooted gene trees assuming the multispecies coalescent model. It is hoped that this approach will be useful in cases where an appropriate outgroup is difficult to find and gene trees do not follow a molecular clock. We use approximate Bayesian computation to infer the root of the species tree from unrooted gene trees. This approach could also be useful when there is prior information that makes a small number of root locations plausible in an unrooted species tree.