AFLPsim: an R package to simulate and detect dominant markers under selection in hybridizing populations.
BACKGROUND
In spite of a large diversity of approaches to investigate loci under selection from a population genetic perspective, very few programs have been specifically designed to date to test selection in hybrids using dominant markers. In addition, simulators of dominant markers are very scarce and they do not usually take into account hybridization.


RESULTS
Here, we present a new, multifunctional, R package for dominant genetic markers, AFLPsim. This package can simulate dominant markers in hybridizing populations and implements genome scan methods for detecting outlier dominant loci in hybrids. In addition, it includes tools for further manipulating the results, plotting them and other tasks. We describe and tabulate the major functions implemented in AFLPsim. In addition, we provide some demonstration of its use and we perform a comparative study with other software. Finally, we conclude by briefly describing the input and output formats.


CONCLUSIONS
The R package AFLPsim application provides several useful tools in the context of hybridization studies. It can simulate dominant markers in hybridizing populations and predict their demographic evolution. In addition, we implement a new genome scan method for detecting outlier dominant loci in hybrids, which shows a rather high sensitivity and is very conservative in comparison with Gagnaire et al.'s, Bayescan and introgress. The application is downloadable at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/AFLPsim/.
Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla, Ap-1095, 41080 Sevilla, Spain ; Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, Vienna, 1030 Austria.
Francisco
F
Balao
Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla, Ap-1095, 41080 Sevilla, Spain.
Juan Luis
JL
García-Castaño
Demographic simulation; Dominant markers; Genome scan; Hybridization; Outlier loci; R package