ScholarlyCommons

Title

Phylogenetic Mixtures: Concentration of Measure in the Large-Tree Limit

Author(s)

Elchanan Mossel, University of Pennsylvania
Sébastien Roch

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of this Version

2012

Publication Source

The Annals of Applied Probability

Volume

22

Issue

6

Start Page

2429

Last Page

2459

DOI

10.1214/11-AAP837

Abstract

The reconstruction of phylogenies from DNA or protein sequences is a major task of computational evolutionary biology. Common phenomena, notably variations in mutation rates across genomes and incongruences between gene lineage histories, often make it necessary to model molecular data as originating from a mixture of phylogenies. Such mixed models play an increasingly important role in practice.

Using concentration of measure techniques, we show that mixtures of large trees are typically identifiable. We also derive sequence-length requirements for high-probability reconstruction.

Keywords

phylogenetic reconstruction, random trees, concentration of measure

Recommended Citation

Mossel, E., & Roch, S. (2012). Phylogenetic Mixtures: Concentration of Measure in the Large-Tree Limit. The Annals of Applied Probability, 22 (6), 2429-2459. http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AAP837