RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Insertions and deletions as phylogenetic signal in an alignment-free context JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2021.02.03.429685 DO 10.1101/2021.02.03.429685 A1 Niklas Birth A1 Thomas Dencker A1 Burkhard Morgenstern YR 2021 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/19/2021.02.03.429685.abstract AB Most methods for phylogenetic tree reconstruction are based on sequence alignments; they infer phylogenies from substitutions that may have occurred at the aligned sequence positions. Gaps in alignments are usually not employed as phylogenetic signal. In this paper, we explore an alignment-free approach that uses insertions and deletions (indels) as an additional source of information for phylogeny inference. For a set of four or more input sequences, we generate so-called quartet blocks of four putative homologous segments each. For pairs of such quartet blocks involving the same four sequences, we compare the distances between the two blocks in these sequences, to obtain hints about indels that may have happened between the blocks since the respective four sequences have evolved from their last common ancestor. A prototype implementation is presented to infer phylogenetic trees from these data, using a quartet-tree approach or, alternatively, under the maximum-parsimony paradigm. This approach should not be regarded as an alternative to established methods, but rather as a complementary source of phylogenetic information. Interestingly, however, our software is able to produce phylogenetic trees from putative indels alone that are comparable to trees obtained with existing alignment-free methods.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.