Constructing a broadly inclusive seed plant phylogeny.
PREMISE OF THE STUDY
Large phylogenies can help shed light on macroevolutionary patterns that inform our understanding of fundamental processes that shape the tree of life. These phylogenies also serve as tools that facilitate other systematic, evolutionary, and ecological analyses. Here we combine genetic data from public repositories (GenBank) with phylogenetic data (Open Tree of Life project) to construct a dated phylogeny for seed plants.


METHODS
We conducted a hierarchical clustering analysis of publicly available molecular data for major clades within the Spermatophyta. We constructed phylogenies of major clades, estimated divergence times, and incorporated data from the Open Tree of Life project, resulting in a seed plant phylogeny. We estimated diversification rates, excluding those taxa without molecular data. We also summarized topological uncertainty and data overlap for each major clade.


KEY RESULTS
The trees constructed for Spermatophyta consisted of 79,881 and 353,185 terminal taxa; the latter included the Open Tree of Life taxa for which we could not include molecular data from GenBank. The diversification analyses demonstrated nested patterns of rate shifts throughout the phylogeny. Data overlap and inference uncertainty show significant variation throughout and demonstrate the continued need for data collection across seed plants.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates a means for combining available resources to construct a dated phylogeny for plants. However, this approach is an early step and more developments are needed to add data, better incorporating underlying uncertainty, and improve resolution. The methods discussed here can also be applied to other major clades in the tree of life.
['Smith|Stephen A|SA|0000-0003-2035-9531', 'Brown|Joseph W|JW|0000-0002-3835-8062']
D005075:Biological Evolution D002965:Classification D016000:Cluster Analysis D004463:Ecology D010802:Phylogeny D010944:Plants D012639:Seeds
seed plants GenBank phylogenetics Open Tree of Life clustering diversification divergence-time estimation phylogenetic methods plant tree of life