Phylogenetic reconstruction of ancestral character states for gene expression and mRNA splicing data

Abstract

Abstract Background As genomes evolve after speciation, gene content, coding sequence, gene expression, and splicing all diverge with time from ancestors with close relatives. A minimum evolution general method for continuous character analysis in a phylogenetic perspective is presented that allows for reconstruction of ancestral character states and for measuring along branch evolution. Results A software package for reconstruction of continuous character traits, like relative gene expression levels or alternative splice site usage data is presented and is available for download at http://www.rossnes.org/phyrex. This program was applied to a primate gene expression dataset to detect transcription factor binding sites that have undergone substitution, potentially having driven lineage-specific differences in gene expression. Conclusion Systematic analysis of lineage-specific evolution is becoming the cornerstone of comparative genomics. New methods, like phyrex, extend the capabilities of comparative genomics by tracing the evolution of additional biomolecular processes.