title: Genetic ME-a visualization application for merging and editing pedigrees for genetic studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In order to study the genetics of diseases more accurately and effectively, one often collects large families. Different members of a large family may provide differing information about the structure and make-up of their pedigree. Thus, software is needed to facilitate reconciliation of pedigrees collected independently from multiple informants from a single large family to create a unified pedigree that is based on the best composite information available.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our implementation demonstrates that Genetic ME performs merging in terms of adding, replacing and combining information from two pedigrees. Through a tracking process, all of the changes made to the data set for the individuals can be traced back to their original source material. A new pedigree structure can be easily visualized while reconciling disparate information from multiple pedigrees.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed the Genetic Merging & Editing (Genetic ME) program, an open source Java application built on top of CraneFoot and Ghostscript, to support comparing, editing and merging of pedigrees collected from multiple sources in a visually-oriented manner.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Genetic ME constitutes an ideal addition to software packages for reconciling pedigree information from multiple sources. Genetic ME provides a friendly graphical user interface, traces the changes made by users, and produces viewable merged pedigree structures able to be further used by other popular analysis programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine-UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. diem.k.bui@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Diem K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Bui
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA. yij5@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Yingda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine-UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. xinwei91@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine-UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. Ortube@jsei.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Maria C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ortube
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA. weeks@pitt.edu.|Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA. weeks@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Weeks
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA. yconley@pitt.edu.|Department of Health Promotion and Development, School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA. yconley@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Yvette P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Conley
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine-UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. Gorin@jsei.ucla.edu.|Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine-UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. Gorin@jsei.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Michael B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Gorin
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003196:Computer Graphics; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010375:Pedigree; D014584:User-Computer Interface