Brief Communications:QTLNetworkR:an interactive R package for QTL visualization

QTLNetworkR is an R package that aims to provide a user-friendly and platform-independent tool to visualize quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping results. The graphical functions of the QTLNetworkR are based upon lattice and grid packages, and the graphical user interface (GUI) of the QTLNetworkR is built upon RGtk2 and gWidgetsRGtk2 packages. Six functions are designed to help visualize marker interval, putative QTL, QTL-by- environment interactions, marker interval interactions, epistasis, and the predicted genetic architecture of complex traits. It is especially helpful in profiling results for multiple traits at multiple environments. The current version of QTLNetworkR is able to accept QTL mapping results from QTLNetwork, and it is ready for possible extensions to import results from some other QTL mapping software packages. In addition, we presented a QTL mapping result in rice (Oryza sativa) as an example to describe the features of QTLNetworkR.