If the genomic era has solidified one enduring lesson in phylogenetics, it is that genes have different stories to tell - sometimes very different stories.

These differences are due to the fact that genes vary in many different ways, including the amount of change they've experienced, the processes that have shaped their evolution, and even their true genealogical history.

This variation can serve as a valuable resource both to better understand evolutionary history and better understand how evolution shapes genomes.

However, taking full advantage of this resource requires the use of creative approaches to explore, describe, and critically evaluate phylogenetic signal across genes.

In this talk, I will describe recent work where we ask some fundamental questions about gene tree variation, such as:

• How much does phylogenetic information vary across genes and sequencing approaches?
• How can we best explore and understand phylogenetic variation?
• Do standard phylogenetic models capture the salient features of evolution?
• What can we learn about molecular evolution from "outlier" genes?

Further information/reading:

• https://academic.oup.com/sysbio/article/66/4/517/2950896
• https://academic.oup.com/sysbio/article/64/5/824/1686772
• https://academic.oup.com/sysbio/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sysbio/syy013/4877124
• see also Jeremy's lab page

Hosted by the Centre for Biodiversity Analysis, TEA Talks (Techniques in Evolutionary Analysis) are a series of talks and short workshops that introduce a range of current methods and analytical approaches in phylogenetics, bioinformatics and macroevolution.