General Purpose Educational Programs

Animal Breeding

• GENUP (Gen up on animal GENetics and breeding) is a Windows computer program by Brian Kinghorn (Dept of Animal Science, University of New England, Australia) aimed to develop into an integrated learning platform for quantitative genetics. 'Integration' here means the maintenance of a core database, such that data and parameters can be passed between different learning 'modules', either within or between user sessions. This gives a basis of support for scenario building and a comprehensive view on animal breeding problems. Quantitative Genetics involves a wide range of concepts with mathematical foundations. Some students master the foundations but miss the concepts, leading to development of narrow-minded animal breeding practitioners. Algorithm-based software such as this can be much more useful than information-based software for learning the functional concepts of a system, through experience gained. The user controls inputs, scenarios and/or policies to gain a feel for the properties of the system s/he is working with. Default data are included for four production systems. The user can add more by editing one of these and saving the result from within GENUP. Eleven learning modules are included with GENUP (version 2.6). Class notes and active supervision are generally required for successful use of GENUP with students at an introductory level.
  • WWW site

Genetic simulations

• The University of Chicago has a fairly general selection and drift simulator for a diallelic loci than runs off the web.

• DRIFT An interactive program for teaching the concepts of genetic drift by Mark Young (Lincoln University, New Zealand). The program runs under DOS or WINDOWS 3.x on an IBM PC, with or without a mouse.
  • More information
  • ZIP file (64K)

• GREGOR: Software for genetic simulation is a DOS program by Nick Tinker (Department of Plant Science, McGill) which allows students and scientists to explore potential manifestations of genetic models and stochastic processes. It also provides a means to evaluate the effectiveness of statistical procedures such as linkage analysis or QTL detection. GREGOR was developed to fulfil the need for an interactive, user friendly method of performing genetic simulation. It provides procedures for defining genetic models, manipulating genetic populations, and examining simulated data. Models may be designed for simple mendelian traits as well as quantitative traits that are affected by multiple genes and/or environment. Using graphical output, users can observe the segregation of genes in simulated genetic populations.
  • WWW page

Bruce Walsh. jbwalsh@ccit.arizona.edu . Comments welcome.