Version Compatibility

Reference examples tested with: BioPython 1.83+, TreeTime 0.11+, scanpy 1.10+

Before using code patterns, verify installed versions match. If versions differ:

• Python: pip show <package> then help(module.function) to check signatures
• CLI: <tool> --version then <tool> --help to confirm flags

If code throws ImportError, AttributeError, or TypeError, introspect the installed package and adapt the example to match the actual API rather than retrying.

Phylodynamics

"Build a time-scaled tree for my outbreak" → Estimate divergence times and molecular clock rates from dated sequences to reconstruct outbreak timing and evolutionary dynamics.

• Python: treetime.TreeTime() for maximum likelihood time-scaled trees
• CLI: treetime --tree tree.nwk --aln aln.fasta --dates dates.tsv

TreeTime Basic Usage

from treetime import TreeTime
from Bio import Phylo

# Load tree and alignment
tree = Phylo.read('tree.nwk', 'newick')

# Create TreeTime object with dates
# dates_file: tab-separated with columns 'name' and 'date'
# Date formats: 2020.5, 2020-06-15, numeric (decimal year)
tt = TreeTime(
    tree=tree,
    aln='alignment.fasta',
    dates='dates.tsv',
    gtr='JC69'  # Nucleotide model: JC69, HKY85, GTR
)

# Run molecular clock analysis
tt.run(
    root='best',           # Root optimization: 'best', 'least-squares', or clade name
    Tc='skyline',          # Coalescent prior: None, 'skyline', 'opt', or numeric
    time_marginal='assign_ml'  # Date estimation method
)

# Access results
print(f'Root date: {tt.tree.root.numdate:.2f}')
print(f'Clock rate: {tt.clock_rate:.2e} subs/site/year')

TreeTime CLI

# Install treetime
pip install phylo-treetime

# Basic time tree
treetime --tree tree.nwk --aln alignment.fasta --dates dates.tsv --outdir results/

# With coalescent prior (for population dynamics)
treetime --tree tree.nwk --aln alignment.fasta --dates dates.tsv \
    --coalescent skyline --outdir results/

# Ancestral sequence reconstruction
treetime ancestral --tree tree.nwk --aln alignment.fasta --outdir results/

# Mugration (discrete trait analysis, e.g., geographic spread)
treetime mugration --tree tree.nwk --states locations.tsv \
    --attribute location --outdir results/