qValue--a program to calculate comparative measures of genomic reorganisation from cytogenetic and/or linkage...

A program qValue, which calculates a measure of the genomic reorganisation that has occurred between pairs of species since their divergence from a common ancestor, is described. The program takes a tab-delimited text file containing data describing the location of various genetic loci in multiple species and generates an output text file, also in tab-delimited format, that lists various parameters of genomic reorganisation between all possible pairs of species considered. This provides a useful tool for the developing field of comparative genome mapping, particularly in the study of the evolution of the vertebrate genome.