Assembling the Tree of Life: Can Phylogenomics Resolve Deep Phylogeny?

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Resolving the topology and relative timing of the deepest branches remains one of the most significant challenges in Assembling the Tree of Life. Knowledge of this deep phylogeny, however, is critical for understanding foundational questions in biology such as how the complex networks that underlie modern life arose, and how they have been shaped by co-evolution with the Earth. This research project will develop new algorithms to infer a Tree of Life that is based on the thousands of complete genome sequences currently available rather than a single gene or small set of genes. Accurately identifying and accounting for horizontal gene transfer, a process in which genes are exchanged between unrelated species, potentially obscuring phylogenetic relationships, is a key challenge that will be addressed. Calibrating the timing of the deepest branches on the Tree of Life with the geological record will be done in collaboration with experts in early Earth history and geochronology. This project will result in a better understanding of the origin and history of life on Earth, and new algorithms for inferring the evolutionary history of genes and species across billions of years of evolutionary time. The project will bring together expertise from diverse fields of study, and expose graduate, undergraduate, and postdoctoral students to interdisciplinary research. In addition, museum partnerships and podcasts will enable dissemination of research results to the general public.