InVEST: interactive and visual edge selection tool for constructing evolutionary trees

InVEST is an interactive and visual tool for constructing evolutionary trees from an ordered list of edges. In this paper it is shown that many methods for constructing evolutionary trees reduce to the edge selection problem. Furthermore, through a simulation study, it is shown that noninteractive methods for edge selection often perform poorly and can conceal alternative solutions. InVEST allows the user to interact with and explore an ordered list of edges facilitating the incorporation of user domain knowledge into the evolutionary tree construction process.