I need to simulate balanced and unbalanced phylogenetic trees for some research I am doing. In order to do this, I do rejection sampling: simulate a tree -> measure tree shape -> reject if not balanced or unbalanced enough. But what is enough? We need to define some cutoff value to determine what will be our set of balanced and unbalanced trees.

A function to calculate shape metrics, and a custom theme for plottingn phylogenies.

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foo <- function(x, metric = "colless") {
    if (metric == "colless") {
        xx <- as.treeshape(x)  # convert to apTreeshape format
        colless(xx, "yule")  # calculate colless' metric
    } else if (metric == "gamma") {
        gammaStat(x)
    } else stop("metric should be one of colless or gamma")
}

theme_myblank <- function() {
    stopifnot(require(ggplot2))
    theme_blank <- ggplot2::theme_blank
    ggplot2::theme(panel.grid.major = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), 
        panel.background = element_blank(), plot.background = element_blank(), 
        axis.title.x = element_text(colour = NA), axis.title.y = element_blank(), 
        axis.text.x = element_blank(), axis.text.y = element_blank(), axis.line = element_blank(), 
        axis.ticks = element_blank())
}

Simulate some trees

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library(ape)
library(phytools)

numtrees <- 1000  # lets simulate 1000 trees
trees <- pbtree(n = 50, nsim = numtrees, ape = F)  # simulate 500 pure-birth trees with 100 spp each, ape = F makes it run faster

Calculate Colless’ shape metric on each tree

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library(plyr)
library(apTreeshape)

colless_df <- ldply(trees, foo, metric = "colless")  # calculate metric for each tree
head(colless_df)

       V1
1 -0.1761
2  0.2839
3  0.4639
4  0.9439
5 -0.6961
6 -0.1161
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# Calculate the percent of trees that will fall into the cutoff for balanced and unbalanced trees
col_percent_low <- round(length(colless_df[colless_df$V1 < -0.7, "V1"])/numtrees, 2) * 100
col_percent_high <- round(length(colless_df[colless_df$V1 > 0.7, "V1"])/numtrees, 2) * 100

Create a distribution of the metric values

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library(ggplot2)

a <- ggplot(colless_df, aes(V1)) +  # plot histogram of distribution of values
	geom_histogram() + 
	theme_bw(base_size=18) + 
	scale_x_continuous(limits=c(-3,3), breaks=c(-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3)) + 
	geom_vline(xintercept = -0.7, colour="red", linetype = "longdash") +
	geom_vline(xintercept = 0.7, colour="red", linetype = "longdash") +
	ggtitle(paste0("Distribution of Colless' metric for 1000 trees, cutoffs at -0.7 and 0.7 results in\n ", col_percent_low, "% (", numtrees*(col_percent_low/100), ") 'balanced' trees (left) and ", col_percent_low, "% (", numtrees*(col_percent_low/100), ") 'unbalanced' trees (right)")) +  
	labs(x = "Colless' Metric Value", y = "Number of phylogenetic trees") +
	theme(plot.title  = element_text(size = 16))

a

center

Create phylogenies representing balanced and unbalanced trees (using the custom theme)

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library(ggphylo)

b <- ggphylo(trees[which.min(colless_df$V1)], do.plot = F) + theme_myblank()
c <- ggphylo(trees[which.max(colless_df$V1)], do.plot = F) + theme_myblank()

b

center

Now, put it all together in one plot using some gridExtra magic.

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library(gridExtra)

grid.newpage()
pushViewport(viewport(layout = grid.layout(1, 1)))
vpa_ <- viewport(width = 1, height = 1, x = 0.5, y = 0.49)
vpb_ <- viewport(width = 0.35, height = 0.35, x = 0.23, y = 0.7)
vpc_ <- viewport(width = 0.35, height = 0.35, x = 0.82, y = 0.7)
print(a, vp = vpa_)
print(b, vp = vpb_)
print(c, vp = vpc_)

center

And the same for Gamma stat, which measures the distribution of nodes in time.

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gamma_df <- ldply(trees, foo, metric="gamma") # calculate metric for each tree
gam_percent_low <- round(length(gamma_df[gamma_df$V1 < -1, "V1"])/numtrees, 2)*100
gam_percent_high <- round(length(gamma_df[gamma_df$V1 > 1, "V1"])/numtrees, 2)*100
a <- ggplot(gamma_df, aes(V1)) +  # plot histogram of distribution of values
	geom_histogram() + 
	theme_bw(base_size=18) + 
	scale_x_continuous(breaks=c(-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3)) + 
	geom_vline(xintercept = -1, colour="red", linetype = "longdash") +
	geom_vline(xintercept = 1, colour="red", linetype = "longdash") +
	ggtitle(paste0("Distribution of Gamma metric for 1000 trees, cutoffs at -1 and 1 results in\n ", gam_percent_low, "% (", numtrees*(gam_percent_low/100), ") trees with deeper nodes (left) and ", gam_percent_high, "% (", numtrees*(gam_percent_high/100), ") trees with shallower nodes (right)")) +  
	labs(x = "Gamma Metric Value", y = "Number of phylogenetic trees") +
	theme(plot.title  = element_text(size = 16))
b <- ggphylo(trees[which.min(gamma_df$V1)], do.plot=F) + theme_myblank()
c <- ggphylo(trees[which.max(gamma_df$V1)], do.plot=F) + theme_myblank()

grid.newpage()
pushViewport(viewport(layout = grid.layout(1,1)))
vpa_ <- viewport(width = 1, height = 1, x = 0.5, y = 0.49)
vpb_ <- viewport(width = 0.35, height = 0.35, x = 0.23, y = 0.7)
vpc_ <- viewport(width = 0.35, height = 0.35, x = 0.82, y = 0.7)
print(a, vp = vpa_)
print(b, vp = vpb_)
print(c, vp = vpc_)

center

Get the .Rmd file used to create this post at my github account - or .md file.

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