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Evaluation of the RelatiPerformance of the Subflattenings Method for Phylogenetic Inference
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 16:13 authored by Joshua StevensonJoshua Stevenson, Barbara HollandBarbara Holland, Michael CharlestonMichael Charleston, Jeremy SumnerJeremy SumnerThe algebraic properties of flattenings and subflattenings provide direct methods for identifying edges in the true phylogeny—and by extension the complete tree—using pattern counts from a sequence alignment. The relatively small number of possible internal edges among a set of taxa (compared to the number of binary trees) makes these methods attractive; however, more could be done to evaluate their effectiveness for inferring phylogenetic trees. This is the case particularly for subflattenings, and the work we present here makes progress in this area. We introduce software for constructing and evaluating subflattenings for splits, utilising a number of methods to make computing subflattenings more tractable. We then present the results of simulations we have performed in order to compare the effectiveness of subflattenings to that of flattenings in terms of split score distributions, and susceptibility to possible biases. We find that subflattenings perform similarly to flattenings in terms of the distribution of split scores on the trees we examined, but may be less affected by bias arising from both split size/balance and long branch attraction. These insights are useful for developing effective algorithms to utilise these tools for the purpose of inferring phylogenetic trees.
History
Publication title
Bulletin of Mathematical BiologyVolume
85Issue
19Pagination
1-23ISSN
1522-9602Department/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
Springer New York LLCPlace of publication
United StatesRepository Status
- Restricted