MapChart: Software for the Graphical Presentation of Linkage Maps and QTLs

Over the last 15 years a wealth of linkage maps and quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping results have become available. The pace of generating this genetic infor-mation is accelerating owing to advances in molecular marker technology and the development of software for linkage anal-ysis and QTL mapping. A graphical presentation of this infor-mation is often needed, both for publica-tion purposes and for easy and intuitive interpretation. However, the development of tools for the graphical presentation of linkage maps and QTLs has lagged behind. DrawMap (Van Ooijen 1994) was an early program capable of drawing genetic link-age maps. However, the output of this pro-gram was not very well suited for use in…