Methods for Computing Wagner Trees

Abstract Farris, J. S. (Biol. Sci., State Univ., Stony Brook, N. Y.) 1970. Methods for computing Wagner Trees. Syst. Zool., 19:8342.-The article derives some properties of Wagner Trees and Networks and describes computational procedures for Prim Networks, the Wagner Method, Rootless Wagner Method and optimization of hypothetical intermediates ( HTUs). The Wagner Ground Plan Analysis method for estimating evolutionary trees has been widely employed in botanical studies (see references in Wagner, 1961) and has more recently been employed in zoological evolutionary taxonomy (Kluge, 1966; Kluge and Farris, 1969). Wagner Trees are one possible generalization of the most parsimonious trees of Camin and Sokal (1965). The Wagner technique is of con-siderable interest for quantitative evolution- ary taxonomists because it is readily pro- grammable and because the type of tree produced can tractably be extended to ap- plications in a variety of novel quantitative phyletic techniques. In this paper I shall formalize the concept of a Wagner Network and discuss a number of algorithms for calculating such networks. The rationale for the methods described will not be treated extensively here, as it is published elsewhere (Kluge and Farris, 1969).