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Some considerations about Cotton and Wilkinson's "majority rule supertrees"
Pablo A Goloboff1,2, Martin E Morales1
1Unidad Ejecutora Lillo (CONICET - Fundación Miguel Lillo), S.M. de Tucumán, Argentina.
Summary
The majority rule supertree (-) method may favor minority relationships, contradicting the majority. This occurs when trees have differing taxa numbers, potentially ignoring smaller trees regardless of their quantity.
Area of Science:
- Phylogenetics
- Computational Biology
- Systematic Biology
Background:
- Supertree methods are crucial for synthesizing phylogenetic information.
- The majority rule consensus method is widely used in phylogenetics.
- Discrepancies can arise when applying consensus methods to trees with varying taxa.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze scenarios where the "majority rule supertree (-)" method yields results inconsistent with the majority of input trees.
- To investigate the influence of tree size and taxa composition on supertree construction.
- To compare the behavior of the "majority rule supertree (-)" and "majority rule supertree (+)" methods.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of the "majority rule supertree (-)" algorithm's behavior with differing tree sizes.
- Examination of how taxa number and arrangement affect supertree outcomes.
- Comparison of the "majority rule supertree (-)" and "majority rule supertree (+)" methods.
Main Results:
- The "majority rule supertree (-)" method can prioritize a minority of relationships over the majority.
- Larger trees can disproportionately influence results, even when outnumbered by smaller trees.
- The "majority rule supertree (+)" method resolves conflicts by collapsing groups, differing from the (-) version.
Conclusions:
- The "majority rule supertree (-)" method's susceptibility to minority preferences requires careful consideration.
- Taxa number and arrangement are critical factors in supertree construction outcomes.
- The "majority rule supertree (+)" offers an alternative approach to handling conflicting phylogenetic signals.
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