SNaQ.jl: Improved scalability for phylogenetic network inference

Phylogenetic networks represent complex biological scenarios that are overlooked in trees, such as hybridization and horizontal gene transfer. Although numerous methods have been developed for phylogenetic network inference, their scalability is severely limited by the computational demands of likelihood optimization and the vastness of network space. Composite (or pseudo-) likelihood approaches like SNaQ have improved computational tractability for network inference, but they remain inadequate for datasets of sizes routinely handled by tree inference methods. Here, we introduce SNaQ.jl, a new standalone Julia package with the composite likelihood inference originally implemented within PhyloNetworks.jl as well as new scalability features that enhance computational efficiency through (1) parallelization of quartet likelihood calculations during composite likelihood computation, (2) weighted random selection of quartets, and (3) probabilistic decision-making during network search. Through a simulation study and empirical data analysis, we show that this new version of SNaQ.jl (version 1.1) improves average runtimes by up to 400% with no change in accuracy.