‘Gametes Simulator’: a multilocus genotype simulator to analyze genetic structure in outbreeding diploid species

Abstract Bulk sampling and subsequent DNA fingerprinting are applied to obtain estimated allelic frequency data and unveil population structure for outbreeding species. We developed ‘Gametes Simulator’, a routine to simulate gametes from allelic frequencies of unlinked loci, which enables the analysis of population structure through Bayesian analysis. Based on the allelic frequencies in the populations, the software simulates the alleles per population in the right proportions and assigns one allele per marker to each gamete following Mendel’s laws that govern gametogenesis.