CtrlK
BlogDocsLog inGet started
Tessl Logo

biopython-phylo

Use Bio.Phylo to read/write phylogenetic trees and perform visualization and statistics; use when tree parsing/conversion, pruning/rerooting, distance calculation, or plotting is required.

63

Quality

76%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

View guide

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No findings from the security scan

Fix and improve this skill with Tessl

tessl review fix ./scientific-skills/Data Analysis/biopython-phylo/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Source: https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills

biopython-phylo

When to Use

  • Converting phylogenetic tree files between Newick, NEXUS, and phyloXML formats.
  • Traversing a tree to locate clades, prune taxa, or reroot at a specific node/outgroup.
  • Computing pairwise distances, distance matrices, or basic tree statistics (e.g., branch length summaries).
  • Producing quick tree visualizations as ASCII output for logs/CLI workflows.
  • Generating publication-ready plots of trees using Matplotlib.

Key Features

  • Read and write phylogenetic trees via Bio.Phylo with support for common formats (Newick/NEXUS/phyloXML).
  • Tree manipulation utilities: traversal, clade selection, pruning, and rerooting.
  • Distance computation and simple statistics derived from branch lengths/topology.
  • Visualization options:
    • ASCII rendering for terminal output.
    • Matplotlib-based plotting for figures.

Dependencies

  • biopython>=1.80
  • Optional (for plotting):
    • matplotlib>=3.7

Example Usage

The following example is runnable end-to-end and follows the conventions:

  • Configuration is stored in config/task_config.json.
  • Script is invoked as python scripts/phylo_task.py.
  • All file I/O uses encoding="utf-8".
  • JSON output uses ensure_ascii=False.

config/task_config.json

{
  "input_tree": "data/input_tree.nwk",
  "input_format": "newick",
  "output_tree": "artifacts/output_tree.xml",
  "output_format": "phyloxml",
  "prune_terminals": ["TaxonC"],
  "reroot_outgroup": "TaxonB",
  "ascii_out": "artifacts/tree_ascii.txt",
  "stats_out": "artifacts/tree_stats.json",
  "plot_enabled": true,
  "plot_out": "artifacts/tree_plot.png"
}

scripts/phylo_task.py

import json
import os
from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional

from Bio import Phylo


def ensure_parent_dir(path: str) -> None:
    parent = os.path.dirname(path)
    if parent:
        os.makedirs(parent, exist_ok=True)


def load_config(path: str) -> Dict[str, Any]:
    with open(path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
        return json.load(f)


def prune_by_names(tree, names: List[str]) -> None:
    # Prune terminals by name if present
    for n in names:
        if tree.find_any(name=n) is not None:
            tree.prune(target=n)


def reroot_by_outgroup_name(tree, outgroup_name: str) -> None:
    outgroup = tree.find_any(name=outgroup_name)
    if outgroup is None:
        raise ValueError(f"Outgroup '{outgroup_name}' not found in tree terminals/clades.")
    tree.root_with_outgroup(outgroup)


def tree_stats(tree) -> Dict[str, Any]:
    terminals = tree.get_terminals()
    nonterminals = tree.get_nonterminals()

    # Collect branch lengths (may include None)
    lengths = []
    for clade in tree.find_clades(order="preorder"):
        if clade.branch_length is not None:
            lengths.append(float(clade.branch_length))

    return {
        "n_terminals": len(terminals),
        "n_nonterminals": len(nonterminals),
        "n_clades_total": len(terminals) + len(nonterminals),
        "branch_length_count": len(lengths),
        "branch_length_sum": sum(lengths) if lengths else 0.0,
        "branch_length_min": min(lengths) if lengths else None,
        "branch_length_max": max(lengths) if lengths else None,
        "branch_length_mean": (sum(lengths) / len(lengths)) if lengths else None,
    }


def write_ascii(tree, out_path: str) -> None:
    ensure_parent_dir(out_path)
    with open(out_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
        Phylo.draw_ascii(tree, file=f)


def plot_tree(tree, out_path: str) -> None:
    # Optional dependency: matplotlib
    import matplotlib
    matplotlib.use("Agg")  # headless backend
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

    ensure_parent_dir(out_path)
    fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))
    ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
    Phylo.draw(tree, do_show=False, axes=ax)
    fig.tight_layout()
    fig.savefig(out_path, dpi=200)
    plt.close(fig)


def main(config_path: str = "config/task_config.json") -> None:
    cfg = load_config(config_path)

    input_tree = cfg["input_tree"]
    input_format = cfg.get("input_format", "newick")
    output_tree = cfg["output_tree"]
    output_format = cfg.get("output_format", "phyloxml")

    prune_terminals: List[str] = cfg.get("prune_terminals", [])
    reroot_outgroup: Optional[str] = cfg.get("reroot_outgroup")

    ascii_out = cfg.get("ascii_out", "artifacts/tree_ascii.txt")
    stats_out = cfg.get("stats_out", "artifacts/tree_stats.json")

    plot_enabled = bool(cfg.get("plot_enabled", False))
    plot_out = cfg.get("plot_out", "artifacts/tree_plot.png")

    # Read
    tree = Phylo.read(input_tree, input_format)

    # Manipulate
    if prune_terminals:
        prune_by_names(tree, prune_terminals)

    if reroot_outgroup:
        reroot_by_outgroup_name(tree, reroot_outgroup)

    # Write converted tree
    ensure_parent_dir(output_tree)
    Phylo.write(tree, output_tree, output_format)

    # ASCII visualization
    write_ascii(tree, ascii_out)

    # Stats
    ensure_parent_dir(stats_out)
    with open(stats_out, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
        json.dump(tree_stats(tree), f, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2)

    # Plot (optional)
    if plot_enabled:
        plot_tree(tree, plot_out)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Run

python scripts/phylo_task.py

Implementation Details

  • Configuration-first execution: parameters are stored in config/task_config.json as an intermediate artifact; scripts are invoked uniformly via python scripts/<task_name>.py. Avoid stacking many CLI -- arguments; prefer config files.
  • Encoding and JSON output:
    • Always open files with encoding="utf-8".
    • When writing JSON, use ensure_ascii=False to preserve non-ASCII characters.
  • Supported formats:
    • Input/output formats are passed to Phylo.read(...) and Phylo.write(...) (e.g., newick, nexus, phyloxml).
  • Pruning:
    • Pruning is performed by terminal/clade name using tree.prune(target=<name>). Names not found are skipped (or can be treated as errors depending on your policy).
  • Rerooting:
    • Rerooting uses tree.root_with_outgroup(outgroup_clade); the outgroup is located via tree.find_any(name=...).
  • Statistics:
    • Branch lengths may be missing (None); statistics should ignore missing values.
    • Basic counts can be derived from tree.get_terminals() and tree.get_nonterminals().
  • Visualization:
    • ASCII output uses Phylo.draw_ascii(tree, file=...) for deterministic CLI-friendly rendering.
    • Matplotlib plotting uses a non-interactive backend (Agg) for headless environments and saves to an image file.
Repository
aipoch/medical-research-skills
Last updated
First committed

Is this your skill?

If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.