ms2ms.pl: a PERL script for generating microsatellite data

Microsatellites are frequently used to infer population structure and demographic history. Contrary to DNA sequence data, only very limited simulation software is currently available for microsatellites. The 'ms-program' is an advanced computer simulation tool for sequence data under a broad range of demographic models. We report a PERL script that converts the output of the ms-program into microsatellite data. The ms2ms PERL script generates an output file that could be read by the microsatellite analyser software to calculate the desired summary statistics.