Microsatelight – Pipeline to expedite microsatellite analysis

MICROSATELIGHT is a Perl/Tk pipeline with a graphical user interface that facilitates several tasks when scoring microsatellites. It implements new subroutines in R and PERL and takes advantage of features provided by previously developed freeware. MICROSATELIGHT takes raw genotype data and automates the peak identification through PeakScanner. The PeakSelect subroutine assigns peaks to different microsatellite markers according to their multiplex group, fluorochrome type, and size range. After peak selection, binning of alleles can be carried out 1) automatically through AlleloBin or 2) by manual bin definition through Binator. In both cases, several features for quality checking and further binning improvement are provided. The genotype table can then be converted into input files for several population genetics programs through CREATE. Finally, Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium tests and confidence intervals for null allele frequency can be obtained through GENEPOP. MICROSATELIGHT is the only freely available public-domain software that facilitates full multiplex microsatellite scoring, from electropherogram files to user-defined text files to be used with population genetics software. MICROSATELIGHT has been created for the Windows XP operating system and has been successfully tested under Windows 7. It is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/microsatelight/.