Branching Out to Speciation in a Model of Fractionation: The Malvaceae

Fractionation is the genome-wide process of losing one gene per duplicate pair following whole genome doubling (WGD). An important type of evidence for duplicate gene loss is the frequency distribution of similarities between paralogous gene pairs in a genome or orthologous gene pairs in two species. We extend a previous branching process model for fractionation, originally accounting for paralog similarities, to encompass the distribution of ortholog similarities, after multiple rounds of whole genome doubling and fractionation, with the speciation event occurring at any point. We estimate the fractionation rates during all the inter-event periods in each lineage of the plant family Malvaceae. We suggest a major correction of the phylogenetic position of the durian sub-family, and discover a new triplication event in this lineage.