Roswell Park Cancer Institute

RI Plant Manager: a microcomputer program for genetic mapping with recombinant inbred strains

--Kenneth F. Manly

RI Plant Manager is a microcomputer program for storage and analysis of genetic mapping data from recombinant inbred strains or from multilocus backcrosses. The program rapidly identifies statistically significant linkage between known loci and a newly described locus, and it facilitates rapid evaluation of alternative map orders for linked loci. The program requires a Macintosh Plus or later Macintosh model running version 5.0 or newer of the system software (including 7.0). It will run under Finder or Multifinder. Memory required depends on the size of the data files being analyzed; 2 Mb is recommended.

RI Plant Manager provides four windows for display of stored data. One is the traditional tabular display of genotypes with each row representing one locus and each column representing one strain. The program marks implied crossovers automatically. The order of loci can be changed by dragging a locus with the mouse, and when a locus is moved, the crossover marks are updated automatically. The second type of window is a graphic map with estimated map distances derived from the data. The third window shows a table of statistics for each interlocus interval, including confidence limits for the interval distance; and the fourth window displays a bibliographic reference and comments for each locus. The contents of all windows can be printed. RI Plant Manager accepts manual entry of information, but it will also import and export information from delimited text files.

RI Plant Manager is derived from RI Manager, a program written for analysis of recombinant inbred strains of mice and described in Mammalian Genome (1:123-126, 1991). RI Plant Manager, however, is written for recombinant inbred strains of plants, that is, it uses functions appropriate to self-pollinated strains to calculate map distances and confidence intervals.

The current version of RI Plant Manager, which can be licensed for $90, includes the program and a 46-page illustrated user's manual. The licensing fee, payable to Health Research, Inc., a non-profit corporation, will be used for maintenance and further development of the program. Further information is available from Kenneth Manly, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263-0001 (phone: (716) 845-3372; fax: (716) 845-8169; Internet: [email protected]; bitnet: cammanly@ ubvms).

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