Quarnet inference rules for level-1 networks

Huber, Katharina T., Moulton, Vincent ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9371-6435, Semple, Charles and Wu, Taoyang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2663-2001 (2018) Quarnet inference rules for level-1 networks. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 80 (8). 2137–2153. ISSN 0092-8240

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Abstract

An important problem in phylogenetics is the construction of phylogenetic trees. One way to approach this problem, known as the supertree method, involves inferring a phylogenetic tree with leaves consisting of a set X of species from a collection of trees, each having leaf-set some subset of X. In the 1980s, Colonius and Schulze gave certain inference rules for deciding when a collection of 4-leaved trees, one for each 4-element subset of X, can be simultaneously displayed by a single supertree with leaf-set X. Recently, it has become of interest to extend this and related results to phylogenetic networks. These are a generalization of phylogenetic trees which can be used to represent reticulate evolution (where species can come together to form a new species). It has recently been shown that a certain type of phylogenetic network, called a (unrooted) level-1 network, can essentially be constructed from 4-leaved trees. However, the problem of providing appropriate inference rules for such networks remains unresolved. Here, we show that by considering 4-leaved networks, called quarnets, as opposed to 4-leaved trees, it is possible to provide such rules. In particular, we show that these rules can be used to characterize when a collection of quarnets, one for each 4-element subset of X, can all be simultaneously displayed by a level-1 network with leaf-set X. The rules are an intriguing mixture of tree inference rules, and an inference rule for building up a cyclic ordering of X from orderings on subsets of X of size 4. This opens up several new directions of research for inferring phylogenetic networks from smaller ones, which could yield new algorithms for solving the supernetwork problem in phylogenetics.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: inference rules,phylogenetic network,quartet trees,closure,cyclic orderings,level-1 network,quarnet,qnet
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Computing Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Computational Biology
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Computational Biology > Phylogenetics (former - to 2018)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 10 May 2018 23:36
Last Modified: 14 Jun 2023 13:23
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/67030
DOI: 10.1007/s11538-018-0450-2

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