Equivalent input produces different output in the UniFrac significance test.

ABSTRACT:

Background

UniFrac is a well-known tool for comparing microbial communities and assessing statistically significant differences between communities. In this paper we identify a discrepancy in the UniFrac methodology that causes semantically equivalent inputs to produce different outputs in tests of statistical significance.

Results

The phylogenetic trees that are input into UniFrac may or may not contain abundance counts. An isomorphic transform can be defined that will convert trees between these two formats without altering the semantic meaning of the trees. UniFrac produces different outputs for these equivalent forms of the same input tree. This is illustrated using metagenomics data from a lake sediment study.

Conclusions

Results from the UniFrac tool can vary gr

SUBMITTER: Long JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4141948 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature