Jermiin LS, Catullo RA, Holland BR. A new phylogenetic protocol: dealing with model misspecification and confirmation bias in molecular phylogenetics.
NAR Genom Bioinform 2020;
2:lqaa041. [PMID:
33575594 PMCID:
PMC7671319 DOI:
10.1093/nargab/lqaa041]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2020] [Revised: 05/18/2020] [Accepted: 06/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Molecular phylogenetics plays a key role in comparative genomics and has increasingly significant impacts on science, industry, government, public health and society. In this paper, we posit that the current phylogenetic protocol is missing two critical steps, and that their absence allows model misspecification and confirmation bias to unduly influence phylogenetic estimates. Based on the potential offered by well-established but under-used procedures, such as assessment of phylogenetic assumptions and tests of goodness of fit, we introduce a new phylogenetic protocol that will reduce confirmation bias and increase the accuracy of phylogenetic estimates.
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