Centrality of Objects in a Multidimensional Space and its Effects on Distance-Based Biological Classifications

ABSTRACT

Typology is based on the concept that one individual (the type) can represent the whole group. In yeast taxonomy the type strain is the representative of the whole species and is considered an important tool for classification. Although the evolutionary, phylogenetic and biological species concepts are in contrast with this approach, the International Codes of nomenclature still use typology, which remains one of the most operative systems. These incongruities demand a multidisciplinary investigation on the nature of the type, its characteristics and the possibility of the type to be defined on the basis of a shareable criterion. In this paper we present an approach to the problem of type centrality based on mathematical demonstrations and numerical examples. This paper intended to show the possibilities offered to bioinformatics research by the implementation of multidisciplinary approaches in biology and in proposing a general approach to the definition of the type representing any sort of set, described with multiple descriptors.

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