What is +G4 in modeltest-ng output?

Question

[viksiem]

Hi guys, I used modeltest-ng to find the best fitting evolutionary model for my data and I want to use Mr. bayes to infer the tree. But modeltest-ng output shows matrix+I+G4, which is a problem since Mr. Bayes (as far as I know) don't have G4. Well, what is better then? is G4 replaceable for G? I actually dind't find any reference for G4 parameter, is it somehow similar to LG4M-LG4X matrices?

Answer 1

[h.mon]

My memory is fuzzy (I have used MrBayes a long time ago), and I never used ModelTest-NG, but I guess MrBayes G is the same as ModelTest-NG G4.

By default, MrBayes (and many other phylogeny estimation software) approximates the gamma distribution using four discrete rate categories, I am inferring ModelTest-NG's G4 means the same, just explicitly stating it is using four categories.

[viksiem]

It makes sense, thank you!