Implementing large genomic SNP datasets in phylogenetic network reconstructions: a case study of particularly rapid radiations of cichlid fish

The Midas cichlids of the Amphilophus citrinellus spp. species complex from Nicaragua, are an extraordinary adaptive rapid radiation (<24,000 years old; 13 described species). These cichlids are a very challenging group to infer its evolutionary history in phylogenetic analyses, due to the apparent prevalence of ILS, as well as past and current gene flow. Assuming solely a vertical transfer of genetic material from an ancestral lineage to new lineages is not appropriate in many cases of genes transferred horizontally in nature. Recently developed methods to infer phylogenetic networks under such circumstances might be able to circumvent these problems. These models accommodate not just incomplete lineage sorting, but also gene flow, under the multispecies network coalescent model (MSNC), processes that are at work in young, hybridizing, and/or rapidly diversifying lineages. There are currently only a few programs available that implement MSNC for estimating phylogenetic networks. Her...