1. ¹Laboratory of Computational Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
2. ²Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics, Folkhälsan Research Center, Biomedicum Helsinki, Finland
3. ³Department of Clinical Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Finland
4. ⁴Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland
5. ⁵Biocomputing Platforms Ltd, Espoo, Finland

Correspondence: V-P Mäkinen, Laboratory of Computational Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology, Innopoli 2, Tekniikantie 14, PO Box 9203, FIN-02015 Hut, Finland. Tel: +358 9 451 5725; Fax: +358 9 451 4830; E-mail: vmakine2@lce.hut.fi; URL: http://www.lce.hut.fi/~vmakine2/cranefoot

Received 24 December 2004; Revised 24 March 2005; Accepted 29 March 2005; Published online 4 May 2005.

Abstract

Family trees have long been a valuable visual tool for geneticists in identifying clusters of inherited traits and genotypes. As more data are collected, drawing the graphs by hand becomes impractical and, for this reason, we have developed the pedigree software CraneFoot. It can process any family graph with minimal computational cost by making a pedigree transformation that enables the use of a linear node positioning algorithm. The program is designed for automated drawing to printed media and efficient visual classification of genetically interesting families from large data sets. It also incorporates a robust pedigree topology check with detailed error messages.