Question

In the final steps of the bootstrap method, the _____ the decay value, the _______ significant the original branches.

(a) greater, less

(b) greater, more

(c) lesser, more

(d) more, less

I have been asked this question by my school teacher while I was bunking the class.

My enquiry is from Reliability of Phylogenetic Predictions topic in section Phylogenetic Tree Construction Methods and Programs of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

The correct answer is:

(b) greater, more

In the bootstrap method for phylogenetic tree construction, the greater the decay value, the more significant the original branches.

This is because the bootstrap method involves repeatedly resampling the data and constructing multiple phylogenetic trees. The frequency with which certain branches appear in these resampled trees indicates their robustness or reliability. A higher bootstrap value suggests that a branch is consistently supported by the data, which means it is more significant in terms of phylogenetic confidence. Conversely, a lower bootstrap value would indicate less support for that branch, implying it is less reliable.

So, the correct answer is (b) greater, more.