Colored Transmission Tree

tree with the trunk changing color halfway up

COLORED TRANSMISSION TREE. Eucalyptus mannifera, Red-spotted gum.
Base of Kite Hill, Raimundo Way.

Transmission of a pathogen among hosts can be described with transmission trees, trees that trace pathogen infection across hosts. Transmission trees contain transmission events, as well as evolution of the pathogen within hosts. Didelot, Fraser, Gardy & Colijn (Mol Biol Evol 34:997-1007, 2017) described transmission trees using a coloring, in which each host is assigned a color, and evolution of pathogen lineages in the host is depicted in that color. Similar colors appear in adjacent branches, illustrating the genetic similarity of a pathogen in the source and recipient of a transmission event. In the sense of Didelot et al., a colored transmission tree appears as a tree in which color appears to be diffusing from root to tips – as in this specimen of E. mannifera.

Photo: Noah Rosenberg, March 4, 2019