Question

Which of the following is an incorrect statement about Newick Format?

(a) It was designed to provide information of tree topology to computer programs without having to draw the tree itself

(b) In this format, trees are represented by taxa excluded in nested parentheses

(c) In this linear representation, each internal node is represented by a pair of parentheses

(d) For a tree with scaled branch lengths, the branch lengths in arbitrary units are placed immediately after the name of the taxon separated by a colon

I got this question in an interview.

This interesting question is from Forms of Tree Representation in section Molecular Phylogenetics of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

The correct choice is (b) In this format, trees are represented by taxa excluded in nested parentheses

For explanation I would say: Trees are represented by taxa included in nested parentheses. In this linear representation, each internal node is represented by a pair of parentheses that enclose all member of a monophyletic group separated by a comma.