Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-18-2010

Volume

5

Issue Number

8

First Page

e12267

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0012267

Disciplines

Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology | Pathogenic Microbiology

Abstract

Background
Many software packages have been developed to address the need for generating phylogenetic trees intended for print. With an increased use of the web to disseminate scientific literature, there is a need for phylogenetic trees to be viewable across many types of devices and feature some of the interactive elements that are integral to the browsing experience. We propose a novel approach for publishing interactive phylogenetic trees.

Methods/Principal Findings
We present a javascript library, jsPhyloSVG, which facilitates constructing interactive phylogenetic trees from raw Newick or phyloXML formats directly within the browser in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. It is designed to work across all major browsers and renders an alternative format for those browsers that do not support SVG. The library provides tools for building rectangular and circular phylograms with integrated charting. Interactive features may be integrated and made to respond to events such as clicks on any element of the tree, including labels.

Conclusions/Significance
jsPhyloSVG is an open-source solution for rendering dynamic phylogenetic trees. It is capable of generating complex and interactive phylogenetic trees across all major browsers without the need for plugins. It is novel in supporting the ability to interpret the tree inference formats directly, exposing the underlying markup to data-mining services. The library source code, extensive documentation and live examples are freely accessible at www.jsphylosvg.com.

Comments

Published in PLoS ONE 5(8): e12267. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012267 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0012267

Copyright: © 2010 Smits, Ouverney. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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