A metric for galled networks

TL;DR

This paper proves that Nakhleh's m measure is a valid metric for galled networks, enabling reliable evaluation of their reconstruction methods in evolutionary biology.

Contribution

The paper establishes that Nakhleh's m measure is a metric specifically for galled networks, supporting their analysis and reconstruction.

Findings

Nakhleh's m measure is a metric for galled networks

Supports evaluation of galled network reconstruction methods

Facilitates comparison of evolutionary histories modeled by galled networks

Abstract

Galled networks, directed acyclic graphs that model evolutionary histories with reticulation cycles containing only tree nodes, have become very popular due to both their biological significance and the existence of polynomial time algorithms for their reconstruction. In this paper we prove that Nakhleh's $m$ measure is a metric for this class of phylogenetic networks and hence it can be safely used to evaluate galled network reconstruction methods.