Title
Extended Newick: it is time for a standard representation of phylogenetic networks.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Phylogenetic trees resulting from molecular phylogenetic analysis are available in Newick format from specialized databases but when it comes to phylogenetic networks, which provide an explicit representation of reticulate evolutionary events such as recombination, hybridization or lateral gene transfer, the lack of a standard format for their representation has hindered the publication of explicit phylogenetic networks in the specialized literature and their incorporation in specialized databases. Two different proposals to represent phylogenetic networks exist: as a single Newick string (where each hybrid node is splitted once for each parent) or as a set of Newick strings (one for each hybrid node plus another one for the phylogenetic network). RESULTS: The standard we advocate as extended Newick format describes a whole phylogenetic network with k hybrid nodes as a single Newick string with k repeated nodes, and this representation is unique once the phylogenetic network is drawn or the ordering among children nodes is fixed. The extended Newick format facilitates phylogenetic data sharing and exchange, and also allows for the practical use of phylogenetic networks in computer programs and scripts. This standard has been recently agreed upon by a number of computational biologists, is already supported by several phylogenetic tools, and avoids the different drawbacks of using an a priori unknown number of Newick strings without any additional mark-up to represent a phylogenetic network. CONCLUSION: The adoption of the extended Newick format as a standard for the representation of phylogenetic network is an important step towards the publication of explicit phylogenetic networks in peer-reviewed journals and their incorporation in a future database of published phylogenetic networks.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1186/1471-2105-9-532
BMC Bioinformatics
Keywords
Field
DocType
phylogenetic network,molecular phylogenetics,phylogenetic tree,algorithms,bioinformatics,phylogeny,lateral gene transfer,computer graphics,microarrays
Newick format,Phylogenetic tree,T-REX,Biology,Horizontal gene transfer,Bioinformatics,Computational biology,Phylogenetics,Phylogenetic network
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
9
1
1471-2105
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
41
1.23
9
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Gabriel Cardona120916.10
Francesc Rosselló224429.09
Gabriel Valiente374263.30