PRIMUS: Pedigree Reconstruction and Identification of a Maximum Unrelated Set

Abstract

This dissertation describes the methods and algorithms developed to improve human genetic analysis for both genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and pedigree-based analyses. The new algorithms are included in the software package PRIMUS. There are four main parts of PRIMUS: 1) To identify a maximum unrelated set of individuals within a genetic dataset to improve statistical analyses. 2) To reconstruct pedigrees using genome-wide identity by descent estimates. 3) To improve pedigree reconstruction using mitochondrial and non-recombining Y haplotypes. 4) To extend pedigree reconstruction by PRIMUS beyond third degree relationships using distant pairwise relationship predictions.