For a graph
G, the mean subtree order of
G is the average order of a subtree of
G. In this note, we provide counterexamples to a recent conjecture of Chin, Gordon, MacPhee, and Vincent, that for every connected graph
G and every pair of distinct vertices
u and
v of
G, the addition of the edge between
u and
v increases the mean subtree order. In fact, we show that the addition of a single edge between a pair of nonadjacent vertices in a graph of order
n can decrease the mean subtree order by as much as n∕3 asymptotically. We propose the weaker conjecture that for every connected graph
G which is not complete, there exists a pair of nonadjacent vertices
u and
v, such that the addition of the edge between
u and
v increases the mean subtree order. We prove this conjecture in the special case that
G is a tree.