Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26267488›Full record

ArticlePLoS genetics2015

New Routes to Phylogeography: A Bayesian Structured Coalescent Approximation.

Nicola De Maio, Chieh-Hsi Wu, Kathleen M O'Reilly, Daniel Wilson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS genetics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 168 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
168citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

168 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
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  5. Inferring Sexual Network Bridging Using Genomics: A Simulation Study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026
    Article
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  7. Parallel algorithms for phylogenetic inference under a structured coalescent approximation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  8. Genomic epidemiology ofMicrobial genomics · 2026
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108 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Nicola De MaioInstitute for Emerging Infections, Oxford Martin School, Oxford, United Kingdom; Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Chieh-Hsi WuNuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Kathleen M O'ReillyMRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Daniel WilsonInstitute for Emerging Infections, Oxford Martin School, Oxford, United Kingdom; Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Funding

Medical Research Council MR/J014362/1Wellcome Trust 101237
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Phylogeographic methods aim to infer migration trends and the history of sampled lineages from genetic data. Applications of phylogeography are broad, and in the context of pathogens include the reconstruction of transmission histories and the origin and emergence of outbreaks. Phylogeographic inference based on bottom-up population genetics models is computationally expensive, and as a result faster alternatives based on the evolution of discrete traits have become popular. In this paper, we show that inference of migration rates and root locations based on discrete trait models is extremely unreliable and sensitive to biased sampling. To address this problem, we introduce BASTA (BAyesian STructured coalescent Approximation), a new approach implemented in BEAST2 that combines the accuracy of methods based on the structured coalescent with the computational efficiency required to handle more than just few populations. We illustrate the potentially severe implications of poor model choice for phylogeographic analyses by investigating the zoonotic transmission of Ebola virus. Whereas the structured coalescent analysis correctly infers that successive human Ebola outbreaks have been seeded by a large unsampled non-human reservoir population, the discrete trait analysis implausibly concludes that undetected human-to-human transmission has allowed the virus to persist over the past four decades. As genomics takes on an increasingly prominent role informing the control and prevention of infectious diseases, it will be vital that phylogeographic inference provides robust insights into transmission history.

Indexed as

Models, GeneticAlgorithmsAnimal MigrationAnimalsBayes TheoremBirdsDisease OutbreaksEbolavirusEvolution, MolecularGenetic VariationHemorrhagic Fever, EbolaHumansInfluenza A virusInfluenza in BirdsPhylogenyPhylogeography

Identifiers

PMID26267488
PMCPMC4534465

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.