Chronology-Sensitive Hierarchical Clustering of Pyrosequenced DNA Samples of E. coli: A Case Study

Abstract

Hierarchical clustering is used in computational biology as a method of comparing sequenced bacterial strain DNA and determining bacterial isolates that belong to the same strain. However, the results of the hierarchical clustering are, at times, difficult to read and interpret. This paper is a case study for the use of a modified hierarchical clustering algorithm, which takes into account the underlying structure of the bacterial DNA isolate collection to which it is applied.