GENOMEPOP: A program to simulate genomes in populations

Background: There are several situations in population biology research where simulating DNA sequences is useful. Simulation of biological populations under different evolutionary genetic models can be undertaken using backward or forward strategies. Backward simulations, also called coalescent-based simulations, are computationally efficient. The reason is that they are based on the history of lineages with surviving offspring in the current population. On the contrary, forward simulations are less efficient because the entire population is simulated from past to present. However, the coalescent framework imposes some limitations that forward simulation does not. Hence, there is an increasing interest in forward population genetic simulation and efficient new tools have been developed recently. Software tools that allow efficient simulation of large DNA fragments under complex evolutionary models will be very helpful when trying to better understand the trace left on the DNA by the d...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Antonio Carvajal-Rodríguez
• Keywords: BMCBI 2008, Dna Sequences, Forward Simulation, Simulation