First steps toward the geometry of cophylogeny

Peter Huggins; Megan Owen; Ruriko Yoshida

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arXiv · 0809.1908

First steps toward the geometry of cophylogeny

Peter Huggins·Megan Owen·Ruriko Yoshida

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Abstract

Here we introduce researchers in algebraic biology to the exciting new field of cophylogenetics. Cophylogenetics is the study of concomitantly evolving organisms (or genes), such as host and parasite species. Thus the natural objects of study in cophylogenetics are tuples of related trees, instead of individual trees. We review various research topics in algebraic statistics for phylogenetics, and propose analogs for cophylogenetics. In particular we propose spaces of cophylogenetic trees, cophylogenetic reconstruction, and cophylogenetic invariants. We conclude with open problems.

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Peter Huggins, Megan Owen, Ruriko Yoshida. 2009-02-03. First steps toward the geometry of cophylogeny. https://arxiv.org/abs/0809.1908

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