Efficient two-trait-locus linkage analysis through program optimization and parallelization: application to hypercholesterolemia.

We have optimized and parallelized the GENEHUNTER-TWOLOCUS program that allows to perform linkage analysis with two trait loci in the multimarker context. The optimization of the serial program, before parallelization, results in a speedup of a factor of more than 10. The parallelization affects the two-locus-score calculation, which is predominant in terms of computation time.