GPOPSIM: a simulation tool for whole-genome genetic data

BACKGROUND: Population-wide genotypic and phenotypic data is frequently used to predict the disease risk or genetic/phenotypic values, or to localize genetic variations responsible for complex traits. GPOPSIM is a simulation tool for pedigree, phenotypes, and genomic data, with a variety of population and genome structures and trait genetic architectures. It provides flexible parameter settings for a wide discipline of users, especially can simulate multiple genetically correlated traits with desired genetic parameters and underlying genetic architectures. RESULTS: The model implemented in GPOPSIM is presented, and the code has been made freely available to the community. Data simulated by GPOPSIM is a good mimic to the real data in terms of genome structure and trait underlying genetic architecture. CONCLUSIONS: GPOPSIM would be a useful tool for the methodological and theoretical studies in the population and quantitative genetics and breeding. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-015-0173-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.