title: Metrics for phylogenetic networks I: generalizations of the Robinson-Foulds metric.
abstract: The assessment of phylogenetic network reconstruction methods requires the ability to compare phylogenetic networks. This is the first in a series of papers devoted to the analysis and comparison of metrics for tree-child time consistent phylogenetic networks on the same set of taxa. In this paper, we study three metrics that have already been introduced in the literature: the Robinson-Foulds distance, the tripartitions distance and the mu-distance. They generalize to networks the classical Robinson-Foulds or partition distance for phylogenetic trees. We analyze the behavior of these metrics by studying their least and largest values and when they achieve them. As a by-product of this study, we obtain tight bounds on the size of a tree-child time consistent phylogenetic network.
authors.affiliation: University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. gabriel.cardona@uib.es
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cardona
authors.forename: Mercè
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Llabrés
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rosselló
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valiente
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D013997:Time Factors