burial (version 1.0): a method for testing genetic similarity within small groups of individuals using fragmentary data sets

• Published in: Molecular ecology notes Vol. 1; no. 3; pp. 213 - 214
• Main Authors: Schönfisch, Birgitt, Tomiuk, Jürgen, Bachmann, Lutz, Pusch, Carsten M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science, Ltd 01-09-2001
• Subjects: genetic similarity; kinship burial; microsatellites; palaeoanthropology; PCR; software
• ISSN: 1471-8278; 1471-8286
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-8278.2001.00039.x

Biologists are frequently facing the problem of dealing with data sets with a small amount of data and a high proportion of missing information. We were particularly interested in analysing fragmentary data sets generated by the application of molecular methods in palaeoanthropology in order to determine whether individuals are genetically related. In this note, we announce the release of the software burial (version 1.0) to test the null hypothesis that the observed grouping of individuals at a particular burial site reflects random placement of genotypes. The proposed test, however, can also be applied to data sets whose objects can be grouped according to nongenetic criteria such as the style of clothing, the kind of burial gifts or cultural artefacts. The C + + source code and binary executables for Windows and Linux are available for download at: http://www.uni‐tuebingen.de/uni/bcm/BURIAL/index.html.