title: Assessing clustering results with reference taxonomies.
abstract: The comparative analysis of phylogenies obtained using different phylogenetic methods or different gene sequences for a given set of species, is usually done by computing some quantitative measure of similarity between the phylogenetic trees. Such a quantitative approach provides little insight into the actual similarities and differences between the alternative phylogenies. In this paper, we present a method for the qualitative assessment of a phylogenetic tree against a reference taxonomy, based on highlighting their common clusters. Our algorithms build a reference taxonomy for the taxa present in a given phylogenetic tree and produce a dendogram for the input phylogenetic tree, with branches in those clusters common to the reference taxonomy highlighted. Our implementation of the algorithms produces publication-quality graphics. For unrooted phylogenies, the method produces a radial cladogram for the input phylogenetic tree, with branches in common clusters to the reference taxonomy highlighted.
authors.affiliation: Algorithms, Bioinformatics, Complexity and Formal Methods Research Group, Technical University of Catalonia, E-08034 Barcelona, Spain. valiente@lsi.upc.edu
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valiente
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny; D012015:Reference Standards