A world of sequences: can we use georeferenced nucleotide databases for a robust automated phylogeography?

摘要

AimComparative phylogeography across a large number of species allows investigating community-level processes at regional and continental scales. An effective approach to such studies would involve automatic retrieval of georeferenced sequence data from nucleotide databases (a first step towards an automated phylogeography'). It remains unclear if, despite repeated calls, georeferencing of nucleotide databases has increased in frequency, and if accumulated data allow for broad applications based on automated retrieval of sequence data and associated geographical information. Here, we investigated geographical information available in NCBI GenBank accessions for tetrapods, exploring temporal and geographical patterns in georeferencing, and quantifying data available for automated phylogeography.