PyToxo: a Python tool for calculating penetrance tables of high-order epistasis models

Abstract

Abstract Background Epistasis is the interaction between different genes when expressing a certain phenotype. If epistasis involves more than two loci it is called high-order epistasis. High-order epistasis is an area under active research because it could be the cause of many complex traits. The most common way to specify an epistasis interaction is through a penetrance table. Results This paper presents PyToxo, a Python tool for generating penetrance tables from any-order epistasis models. Unlike other tools available in the bibliography, PyToxo is able to work with high-order models and realistic penetrance and heritability values, achieving high-precision results in a short time. In addition, PyToxo is distributed as open-source software and includes several interfaces to ease its use. Conclusions PyToxo provides the scientific community with a useful tool to evaluate algorithms and methods that can detect high-order epistasis to continue advancing in the discovery of the causes behind complex diseases.

Keywords

• Simulation
• Epistasis model
• Gene interaction
• Penetrance
• Prevalence
• Heritability