A novel parallel approach to the likelihood-based estimation of admixture in population genetics

Bioinformatics. 2009 Jun 1;25(11):1440-1. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btp136. Epub 2009 Mar 13.

Abstract

Summary: Inferring population admixture from genetic data and quantifying it is a difficult but crucial task in evolutionary and conservation biology. Unfortunately state-of-the-art probabilistic approaches are computationally demanding. Effectively exploiting the computational power of modern multiprocessor systems can thus have a positive impact to Monte Carlo-based simulation of admixture modeling. A novel parallel approach is briefly described and promising results on its message passing interface (MPI)-based C++ implementation are reported.

Availability: The software package parLEA is freely available at (http://dm.unife.it/parlea).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Genetics, Population / methods*
  • Likelihood Functions
  • Monte Carlo Method