MicroErrorAnalyzer

MicroErrorAnalyzer quantifies the effects of genotyping errors in microsatellite-based parentage exclusion by estimating exclusion probabilities, genotyping error rates, and null allele frequencies.

Key Features:

• Error Probability Analysis: Calculates probabilities of excluding a random or related individual from parentage due to genotyping errors, including Mendelian-inconsistent and Mendelian-consistent errors.
• Genotype Mismatch Evaluation: Assesses mismatches between parents and offspring caused by null alleles, allelic dropouts, and false alleles in microsatellite markers.
• Impact Assessment: Evaluates the impact of various genotyping errors on the information content of genetic markers and on the power and reliability of parentage analyses.
• Threshold Determination: Determines appropriate threshold numbers of genetic mismatches for parentage exclusion decisions.
• Error Rate Estimation: Estimates genotyping error rates and frequencies of null alleles from observed mismatches between known parent-offspring dyads.

Scientific Applications:

• Mating Systems and Reproductive Success Studies: Supports parentage exclusion analyses used to investigate mating systems and reproductive success.
• Dispersal and Genetic Parameter Analysis: Aids studies of dispersal and estimation of quantitative genetic parameters by accounting for genotyping error effects.
• Conservation Management: Informs conservation and population management by improving accuracy of parentage assignments for breeding programs and demographic analyses.

Methodology:

It employs a probabilistic approach to derive likelihoods of genotyping errors affecting parentage analysis and applies these calculations to hypothetical and empirical datasets.