Abstract
Paralogy (common ancestry through gene duplication rather than speciation) is widely recognized as an important problem for molecular systematists. This chapter introduces the concepts of paralogy and orthology and explains why paralogy can complicate both systematic work and other studies of molecular evolution. The definition of paralogy is explicitly phylogenetic, and phylogenetic methods are crucial in elucidating the pattern of paralogy. In particular, knowledge of the species phylogeny is key. I introduce the theory behind methods for detecting paralogy and briefly discuss two particular software implementations of phylogenetic methods to detect paralogy from molecular data. I also introduce a statistical method for detecting paralogy and some future directions for work on paralogy detection.
James Cotton
Professor
My research interests are in the genomics, and particularly population genomics of parasites, particularly those that cause neglected tropical diseases