IdeoKar: an ideogram constructing and karyotype analyzing software

Ideograms are diagrammatic or idealized representations of chromosomes, showing their relative size, homologous groups and cytogenetic landmarks. Chromosomal analysis of cytological preparations involves calculation of karyotypic parameters and generation of ideograms. We generated IdeoKar, a free and user-friendly karyotype analysis software that facilitates data collection from different digital images of metaphase chromosome spreads and calculates a wide variety of chromosomal and karyotypic parameters along with the related standard errors which can be saved as a Microsoft Excel file. This software is also capable of drawing ideograms of both diploid and allopolyploid species in a single image file. IdeoKar is designed to fast and efficient karyotype analysis and ideogram generation. It can be used with personal computers without any specific hardware.