A Modified Bootscan Algorithm for Automated Identification of Recombinant Sequences and Recombination Breakpoints

Abstract

We have developed a modified BOOTSCAN algorithm that may be used to screen nucleotide sequence alignments for evidence of recombination without prior identification of nonrecombinant reference sequences. The algorithm is fast and includes a Bonferroni corrected statistical test of recombination to circumvent the multiple testing problems encountered when using the BOOTSCAN method to explore alignments for evidence of recombination. Using both simulated and real datasets we demonstrate that the modified algorithm is more powerful than other phylogenetic recombination detection methods and performs almost as well as one of the best substitution distribution recombination detection methods.