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The phylogenetic relationships among extant gibbon species remain unresolved despite numerous efforts using morphological, behavorial, and genetic data and the sequencing of whole genomes. Amajor challenge in reconstructing the gibbon phylogeny is the radiative speciation process, which resulted in extremely short internal branches in the species phylogeny and extensive incomplete lineage sorting with extensive gene-tree heterogeneity across the genome. Here, we analyze two genomic-scale data sets, with ~10,000 putative noncoding and exonic loci, respectively, to estimate the species tree for the major groups of gibbons. We used the Bayesian full-likelihood method BPP under themultispecies coalescentmodel, which naturally accommodates incomplete lineage sorting and uncertainties in the gene trees. For comparison, we included three heuristic coalescent-based methods (MP-EST, SVDQUARTETS, and ASTRAL) as well as concatenation. From both data sets, we infer the phylogeny for the four extant gibbon genera to be (Hylobates, (Nomascus, (Hoolock, Symphalangus))). We used simulation guided by the real data to evaluate the accuracy of the methods used. ASTRAL, while not as efficient as BPP, performed well in estimation of the species tree even in presence of excessive incomplete lineage sorting. Concatenation, MP-EST and SVDQUARTETS were unreliable when the species tree contains very short internal branches. Likelihood ratio test of gene flow suggests a small amount of migration from Hylobates moloch to H. pileatus, while cross-genera migration is absent or rare. Our results highlight the utility of coalescent-based methods in addressing challenging species tree problems characterized by short internal branches and rampant gene tree-species tree discordance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Heroine cichlids are major components of the fish faunas in both Central America and the Caribbean. To examine the evolutionary patterns of how cichlids colonized both of these regions, we reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships among 23 cichlid lineages. We used three phylogenetically novel nuclear markers (Dystropin b, Myomesin1, and Wnt7b) in combination with sequence data from seven other gene regions (Nd2, Rag1, Enc1, Sreb2, Ptr, Plagl2, and Zic1) to elucidate the species tree of these cichlids. The species examined represent major heroine lineages in South America, Central America, and the Greater Antilles. The individual gene trees of these groups were topologically quite discordant. Therefore, we combined the genetic partitions and inferred the species tree using both concatenation and a coalescent-based Bayesian method. The two resulting phylogenetic topologies were largely concordant but differed in two fundamental ways. First, more nodes in the concatenated tree were supported with substantial or 100% Bayesian posterior support than in the coalescent-based tree. Second, there was a minor, but biogeographically critical, topological difference between the concatenated and coalescent-based trees. Nevertheless, both analyses recovered topologies consistent with the Greater Antillean heroines being phylogenetically nested within the largely Central American heroine radiation. This study suggests that reconstructions of cichlid phylogeny and historical biogeography should account for the vagaries of individual gene histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]