ABSTRACT Visual Exploration of Genetic Likelihood Space ∗

Abstract

Linkage analysis is used to localize human disease genes on the genome and it can involve the exploration and interpretation of a seven-dimensional genetic likelihood space. Existing genetic likelihood exploration techniques are quite cumbersome and slow, and do not help provide insight into the shape and features of the highdimensional likelihood surface. The objective of our visualization is to provide an efficient visual exploration of the complex genetic likelihood space so that researchers can assimilate more information in the least possible time. In this paper, we present new visualization tools for interactive and efficient exploration of the multidimensional likelihood space. Our tools provide interactive manipulation of active ranges of the six model parameters determining the dependent variable, scaled genetic likelihood, or HLOD. Using filtering, color, and an approach inspired by “worlds-withinworlds” [5, 6], researchers can quickly obtain a more informative and insightful visual interpretation of the space