BioMercator 4 : A complete framework to integrate QTL, meta-QTL, and genome annotation.

International audienceCompilation 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. Despite several limitations the software is still widely used. We developed a new version proposing additional up to date methods and improving graphical representation of large datasets. As a major new functionality, user may now import sequence and genome annotations datasets within the software in order to display and mine functional annotation related to QTL and meta-QTL