Add ts.mutations_inherited_state

python/CHANGELOG.rst

@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@
 - Add ``TreeSequence.mutations_edge`` which returns the edge ID for each mutation's
   edge. (:user:`benjeffery`, :pr:`3226`, :issue:`3189`)
 
+- Add ``TreeSequence.mutations_inherited_state`` which returns the inherited state
+  for each mutation. (:user:`benjeffery`, :pr:`3276`, :issue:`2631`)
+
 **Bugfixes**
 
 - In some tables with mutations out-of-order `TableCollection.sort` did not re-order

python/tests/test_highlevel.py

@@ -5546,9 +5546,34 @@ def test_equality_mutations_derived_state(self, ts):
             [mutation.derived_state for mutation in ts.mutations()],
         )
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(not _tskit.HAS_NUMPY_2, reason="Requires NumPy 2.0 or higher")
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("ts", tsutil.get_example_tree_sequences())
+    def test_mutations_inherited_state(self, ts):
+        inherited_state = ts.mutations_inherited_state
+        assert len(inherited_state) == ts.num_mutations
+        assert isinstance(inherited_state, np.ndarray)
+        assert inherited_state.shape == (ts.num_mutations,)
+        assert inherited_state.dtype == np.dtype("T")
+        assert inherited_state.size == ts.num_mutations
+
+        for mut in ts.mutations():
+            state0 = ts.site(mut.site).ancestral_state
+            if mut.parent != -1:
+                state0 = ts.mutation(mut.parent).derived_state
+            assert state0 == inherited_state[mut.id]
+
+        # Test caching - second access should return the same object
+        inherited_state2 = ts.mutations_inherited_state
+        assert inherited_state is inherited_state2
+
     @pytest.mark.skipif(_tskit.HAS_NUMPY_2, reason="Test only on Numpy 1.X")
     @pytest.mark.parametrize(
-        "column", ["sites_ancestral_state", "mutations_derived_state"]
+        "column",
+        [
+            "sites_ancestral_state",
+            "mutations_derived_state",
+            "mutations_inherited_state",
+        ],
     )
     def test_ragged_array_not_supported(self, column):
         tables = tskit.TableCollection(sequence_length=100)

python/tskit/trees.py

@@ -4140,6 +4140,7 @@ def __init__(self, ll_tree_sequence):
         self._individuals_location = None
         self._individuals_nodes = None
         self._mutations_edge = None
+        self._mutations_inherited_state = None
         self._sites_ancestral_state = None
         self._mutations_derived_state = None
         # NOTE: when we've implemented read-only access via the underlying
@@ -6068,6 +6069,29 @@ def mutations_edge(self):
             self._mutations_edge = self._ll_tree_sequence.get_mutations_edge()
         return self._mutations_edge
 
+    @property
+    def mutations_inherited_state(self):
+        """
+        Return an array of the inherited state for each mutation in the tree sequence.
+
+        The inherited state for a mutation is the state that existed at the site
+        before the mutation occurred. This is either the ancestral state of the site
+        (if the mutation has no parent) or the derived state of the mutation's
+        parent mutation (if it has a parent).
+
+        :return: Array of shape (num_mutations,) containing inherited states.
+        :rtype: numpy.ndarray
+        """
+        if self._mutations_inherited_state is None:
+            inherited_state = self.sites_ancestral_state[self.mutations_site]
+            mutations_with_parent = self.mutations_parent != -1
+            parent = self.mutations_parent[mutations_with_parent]
+            inherited_state[mutations_with_parent] = self.mutations_derived_state[
+                parent
+            ]
+            self._mutations_inherited_state = inherited_state
+        return self._mutations_inherited_state
+
     @property
     def migrations_left(self):
         """