UCLA

Comparing tree topologies is an invaluable biological tool, though it is mathematically difficult to systematize. Tree comparisons are simpler to compute on ordered/labeled graphs, which are produced through the eutelic lineages of Caenorhabditis elegans development. We make use of this property to create novel approaches to compare the values and topologies of weighted graphs. This involves generalizing the euclidean norm to the weighted edges of tree structures to create a branch distance, incorporating the tree edit distance as a measure of topological distance, and normalizing the tree edit distance into the Jaccard Distance. These approaches are benchmarked by measuring cell cycle timing in embryonic cell lineages using this framework to categorize patterns of development and corroborating these findings with known developmental properties of this model organism.