Behind the genes of an ultraconserved element (UCE) bait set and the impacts of function on phylogenomic reconstruction

Monday, November 11, 2024

10:54 AM – 11:06 AM MST

Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 224 B, PCC

Presenting Author(s)

Hannah L. Cook (she/her/hers)

PhD Student
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington

Co-Author(s)

Silas Bossert (he/him/his)

Researcher
Washington State University
Pullman, Washington
Elizabeth Murray

Assistant Professor and Director of the MT James Entomological Museum
Washington State University
Colton, Washington

Phylogenetic analysis allows us to infer the evolutionary histories of biological diversity. Up until relatively recently, trees were often constructed using observable characters and/or just a few genes. Today, we can use thousands of loci to capture information from across the entire genome. An increasingly common approach for phylogenomic analyses is the use of ultraconserved elements (UCEs). UCE bait sets are typically designed without much consideration of what parts of the genome they represent, and despite their popularity, their functional properties remain a mystery. This work aims to characterize the genomic representation of the Hymenoptera v2 UCE bait set and investigate whether genes of different functional groups support alternative phylogenies, providing insight into the potential functional biases of UCE probe sets.