Dendrogram displaying method
View Patent ↗A method of comparing dendrograms created by different references or algorithms displays individual dendrograms ( 201, 202 ) on a screen in an overlapped yet distinguishable manner. The overlapped portions of the dendrograms are displaced vertically or horizontally from one another and indicated by different colors for individual dendrograms. A specified branch and elements hanging therefrom can be highlighted when displayed, such that differences in the manner in which individual elements of the overlapped dendrograms are clustered can be easily recognized.
1. A method of displaying a dendrogram representing quantified relations among elements of a group of elements, the method comprising the steps of:
creating a plurality of types of dendrograms based on the same group of elements according to different inter-element relation quantification methods and/or different dendrogram creation methods;
selecting one of the plurality of types of dendrograms as a reference dendrogram;
converting another dendrogram such that the order of its elements is the same as that of the reference dendrogram; and
displaying the reference dendrogram and the converted dendrogram in an overlapped manner by aligning a direction from branches to leaves of the reference dendrogram and that of the converted dendrogram in parallel and with an identical orientation thereby sharing the elements, wherein nodes, branches and leaves of the plurality of types of dendrograms that are displayed do not overlap one another, and the order of elements of a branch in a selected dendrograms can be changed starting from a specified node.
2. A method of displaying a dendrogram according to claim 1 , wherein the individual dendrograms are displayed by different colors and/or types of lines.
3. A method of displaying a dendrogram according to claim 1 , wherein a specified branch or node of a selected dendrogram, and a branch, node and element hanging from the specified branch or node are highlighted when displayed.
4. A method of displaying a dendrogram according to claim 1 , wherein the dendrograms are standardized such that the distances between a root node and a terminal element of each of the plurality of types of dendrograms that are displayed in an overlapped manner are unified, or the branches are standardized such that the distances between nodes of individual branches are unified.
5. A method of displaying a dendrogram according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of types of dendrograms are created by using a plurality of clustering algorithms, the dendrograms mapping expression profiles of genes as elements.
6. A method of displaying a dendrogram according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of types of dendrograms show the results of phylogenetic analysis of genes possessed by individual animal species as elements according to different relation quantification methods and/or different dendrogram creation methods.
7. A computer-executed program of a method of creating a dendrogram, the method comprising the steps of:
creating a plurality of types of dendrograms based on the same group of elements according to different inter-element relation quantification methods and/or different dendrogram creation methods;
selecting one of the plurality of types of dendrograms as a reference dendrogram;
converting another dendrogram such that the order of its elements is the same as that of the reference dendrogram; and
displaying the reference dendrogram and the converted dendrogram in an overlapped manner by aligning a direction from branches to leaves of the reference dendrogram and that of the converted dendrogram in parallel and with an identical orientation thereby sharing the elements, wherein nodes, branches and leaves of the plurality of types of dendrograms that are displayed do not overlap one another, and the order of elements of a branch in a selected dendrograms can be changed starting from a specified node.