Why are some programs used primarily for human chromosome mapping, while others are used for human disease mapping?
Any family can be used for chromosome mapping, so CEPH has picked a particular family “shape” and generated a large database with these families. Programs designed for chromosome mapping can be optimized for using these families, reducing the time needed for calculations. Only families afflicted with a disease can be used for disease gene mapping. As a result, programs designed for disease gene mapping need to be able to deal with arbitrary pedigrees. In addition, these programs need to be able to handle incomplete penetrance.
