Definition of the Application and Its Use in Real Life - tahiri-lab/KMeansPhyloTreesClustering GitHub Wiki

Definition of the Application and Its Use in Real Life

As mentioned previously, KMeans Phylogenetic Trees Clustering is an application that allows grouping phylogenetic trees into several clusters. This is, broadly speaking, the main purpose of the application. But what does this actually mean for us in real life?

A phylogenetic tree is a theory about the evolution between different species. For example, a phylogenetic tree can be used to explain the evolutionary relationships between a cat, a human, and a monkey based on genetic data, in order to evaluate similarities and differences between species. It is through phylogenetic trees, for instance, that in the history of science the idea of a “missing link” between humans and monkeys was proposed.

Thus, the application allows us to select different evolutionary theories, group them together, and obtain a coherent scenario of evolution. Indeed, grouping into several clusters is necessary because scientists often need multiple datasets to establish general patterns when studying the evolution of species, such as viruses, pathogens, humans, animals, and others.

To see the detailed steps of the application, consult the workflow