Title
The unifrac significance test is sensitive to tree topology
Abstract
Long et al. (BMC Bioinformatics 2014, 15(1):278) describe a “discrepancy” in using UniFrac to assess statistical significance of community differences. Specifically, they find that weighted UniFrac results differ between input trees where (a) replicate sequences each have their own tip, or (b) all replicates are assigned to one tip with an associated count. We argue that these are two distinct cases that differ in the probability distribution on which the statistical test is based, because of the differences in tree topology. Further study is needed to understand which randomization procedure best detects different aspects of community dissimilarities.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1186/s12859-015-0640-y
BMC Bioinformatics
Keywords
Field
DocType
UniFrac, Microbial community, Phylogenetic tree, Significance tests
UniFrac,Phylogenetic tree,Biology,Network topology,Metagenomics,Probability distribution,Bioinformatics,Statistical significance,Statistical hypothesis testing,Replicate
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
16
1
1471-2105
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.43
1
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Catherine Lozupone111.11
Rob Knight236626.19