366. Recent updates in the BLUPF90 software suite

Abstract

BLUPF90 is a flexible software suite that estimates variance components, cross-classified and covariate effects, breeding values, accuracies, and SNP effects, among others. It is based on mixed models and focuses mainly on animal breeding and genetics applications. This collection of software is continually under development to incorporate new methods and algorithms, improve efficiency, and broaden usage. A significant change undergoing BLUPF90 is the merge of variance components and breeding values estimation software. Some of the recent developments include the implementation of P-values for SNP effects in single-step GWAS, a new algorithm to approximate reliability or accuracy of GEBV, the inclusion of metafounders or unknown parent groups in ssGBLUP to set the base populations, and several optimizations to speed up computing time with many genotyped animals. BLUPF90 is a resourceful collection of efficient software that handles millions of genotyped animals and dozens of millions of records or individuals in pedigree.