Taxonium

Taxonium visualizes and enables exploration of very large, mutation-annotated phylogenetic trees to support analysis of viral genomic variation such as SARS-CoV-2.

Key Features:

• Scalability: Handles phylogenetic trees with tens of millions of nodes, enabling analysis of extremely large sequencing datasets.
• WebGL integration: Uses WebGL to render and interact with large trees for efficient client-side visualization.
• Metadata linking: Links each tree node to associated metadata to contextualize evolutionary relationships and genetic variation.
• Mutation-annotated trees: Supports mutation-annotated phylogenetic trees that capture known genetic variation across datasets.

Scientific Applications:

• SARS-CoV-2 evolutionary analysis: Analyzes the evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2 using trees comprising millions of sequences.
• Transmission and variant emergence investigation: Enables investigation of transmission events and the emergence of new variants through mutation annotations.
• Infectious disease surveillance: Supports tracking the spread of infectious diseases and understanding their genetic dynamics.

Methodology:

Constructs phylogenetic trees, annotates them with mutation data (mutation-annotated trees), and uses WebGL to render and interact with large trees.