Phylopen: Phylogenetic Tree Browsing Using A Pen And Touch Interface

Abstract

Phylogenetic trees are used by researchers across multiple fields of study to display historical relationships between organisms or genes. Trees are used to examine the speciation process in evolutionary biology, to classify families of viruses in epidemiology, to demonstrate co-speciation in host and pathogen studies, and to explore genetic changes occurring during the disease process in cancer, among other applications. Due to their complexity and the amount of data they present in visual form, phylogenetic trees have generally been difficult to render for publication and challenging to directly interact with in digital form. To address these limitations, we developed PhyloPen, an experimental novel multi-touch and pen application that renders a phylogenetic tree and allows users to interactively navigate within the tree, examining nodes, branches, and auxiliary information, and annotate the tree for note-taking and collaboration. We present a discussion of the interactions implemented in PhyloPen and the results of a formative study that examines how the application was received after use by practicing biologists -- faculty members and graduate students in the discipline. These results are to be later used for a fully supported implementation of the software where the community will be welcomed to participate in its development.

Publication Date

11-23-2015

Publication Title

PLoS Currents

Volume

7

Issue

TREEOFLIFE

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.tol.d6d666469fc1942c665cb895b2305167

Socpus ID

84958580878 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84958580878

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS