ANCESTRY PAINTING

1 . A system for displaying an indication of ancestral data, comprising:

a processor configured to:

receive an indication that a genetic interval corresponds to a reference interval that has a likelihood of having one or more ancestral origins;

determine one or more graphic display parameters based at least in part on the indication; and

visually display an indication of the one or more ancestral origins using the one or more graphic display parameters; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

2 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the genetic interval includes a chromosome segment.

3 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the genetic interval includes a pair of chromosome segments.

4 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the reference interval is associated with a synthetic individual.

5 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more graphic display parameters include a color assigned to the one or more ancestral origins.

6 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more graphic display parameters include a position in a chromosome.

7 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to visually display at least in part by displaying a color assigned to the one or more ancestral origins.

8 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the indication is displayed on a graphical chromosome.

9 . A system as recited in claim 8 , wherein the graphical chromosome is divided into intervals representing a plurality of genetic intervals, including the genetic interval.

10 . A system as recited in claim 9 , wherein color is used to fill in the intervals.

11 . A system as recited in claim 8 , wherein the graphical chromosome is divided horizontally into a top half and a bottom half, each half representing a contribution from a parent.

12 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the indication is displayed using a density plot or a contour plot.

13 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein an indication of one or more ancestral origins associated with other individuals is simultaneously visually displayed.

14 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein an ancestral origin indicates a continent, a region, or a subregion.

15 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein an indication of a percentage associated with the one or more ancestral origins is displayed.

16 . A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to look up the genetic interval in a table of genotype frequencies associated with a plurality of ancestral origins.

17 . A system as recited in claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine an ancestral assignment for the interval based at least in part on the table lookup.

18 . A system as recited in claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured to compute a ratio of a largest frequency to a smallest frequency.

19 . A method for displaying an indication of ancestral data, comprising:

receiving an indication that a genetic interval corresponds to a reference interval that has a likelihood of having one or more ancestral origins;

determining one or more graphic display parameters based at least in part on the indication; and

visually displaying an indication of the one or more ancestral origins using the one or more graphic display parameters.

20 . A computer program product for displaying an indication of ancestral data, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an indication that a genetic interval corresponds to a reference interval that has a likelihood of having one or more ancestral origins;

determining one or more graphic display parameters based at least in part on the indication; and

visually displaying an indication of the one or more ancestral origins using the one or more graphic display parameters.