Embedding phylogenetic trees in networks of low treewidth

Abstract

Given a rooted, binary phylogenetic network and a rooted, binary phylogenetic tree, can the tree be embedded into the network? This problem, called \textsc{Tree Containment}, arises when validating networks constructed by phylogenetic inference methods.We present the first algorithm for (rooted) \textsc{Tree Containment} using the treewidth $t$ of the input network $N$ as parameter, showing that the problem can be solved in $2^{O(t^2)}\cdot|N|$ time and space.