Question

Which of the following is untrue about distance based methods?

(a) The computed evolutionary distances can be used to construct a matrix of distances between all individual pairs of taxa

(b) Clustering is the only method among the algorithms for the distance-based tree-building method

(c) The clustering-type algorithms compute a tree based on a distance matrix starting from the most similar sequence pairs

(d) Based on the pairwise distance scores in the matrix, a phylogenetic tree can be constructed for all the taxa involved

The question was posed to me by my college director while I was bunking the class.

This interesting question is from Distance Based Methods in section Phylogenetic Tree Construction Methods and Programs of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

The correct option is (b) Clustering is the only method among the algorithms for the distance-based tree-building method

The explanation is: The algorithms for the distance-based tree-building method can be subdivided into either clustering based or optimality based. These algorithms include an unweighted pair group method using arithmetic average (UPGMA) and neighbor joining. The optimality-based algorithms compare many alternative tree topologies and select one that has the best fit between estimated distances in the tree and the actual evolutionary distances.