BARKMAN, TODD J. Dept. of Biological Sciences, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008. - Angiosperm phylogenetics: genomic congruence and methodological incongruence.
High confidence in angiosperm phylogenetic inference is achieved when
estimates from all three genomic compartments are identical. Recent
studies have shown that estimates from the nuclear, plastid, and
mitochondrial genomes are largely in agreement for many higher level
flowering plant relationships. In conjunction with genomic congruence,
confidence is heightened in cases where different methods (e.g.
parsimony, neighbor-joining, maximum likelihood) estimate identical
relationships as well. In contrast to congruent genomic relationships
obtained for higher level angiosperm relationships, different methods
sometimes estimate contrasting but well supported phylogenies for the
same taxa and data. Several striking examples of method-dependent
conflicting phylogenetic estimates will be discussed including the
putative first branch of angiosperm phylogeny.
Key words: angiosperm phylogenetics, congruence analysis, neighbor-joining, unweighted parsimony