A statistical test for host-parasite coevolution

Syst Biol. 2002 Apr;51(2):217-34. doi: 10.1080/10635150252899734.

Abstract

A new method, ParaFit, has been developed to test the significance of a global hypothesis of coevolution between parasites and their hosts. Individual host-parasite association links can also be tested. The test statistics are functions of the host and parasite phylogenetic trees and of the set of host-parasite association links. Numerical simulations are used to show that the method has correct rate of type I error and good power except under extreme error conditions. An application to real data (pocket gophers and chewing lice) is presented.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Computational Biology
  • Evolution, Molecular*
  • Host-Parasite Interactions*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Phthiraptera
  • Phylogeny
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Rodentia