BioMercator : A complete framework to integrate QTL, meta-QTL, genome annotation and genome-wide association studies

Compilation of genetic maps combined to QTL meta-analysis has proven to be a powerful approach contributing to the identification of candidate genes underlying quantitative traits. One of the most interesting properties of meta-QTL (or consensus QTL) is its confidence interval (IC) often shorter than IC of corresponding QTLs, decreasing the number of candidate gene to consider. As map compilation and QTL meta-analysis do not rely on genotyping raw data or trait measure, they can be easily achieved even if user holds maps from the literature or genetic databases. BioMercator was the first software offering a complete set of algorithms and visualization tool covering all steps required to perform QTL meta-analysis. The fourth version of BioMercator propose additional methods and improve graphical representation of large datasets. In this version, user may import sequence and genome annotations datasets within the software in order to display and mine functional annotation related to QTL and meta-QTL. In order to improve candidates genes detection, we aim to inculde genetic association approach in the release of BioMercator. Association genetics allow to build a relationship between molecular polymorphism and phenotypic variation so, Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) present a good potential for QTL's sharpening. We integrated GWAS results in Biomercator and provided new functionalities to display and exploit them.