An experimental expert system for genetics

Abstract

An experimental knowledge-based expert system for genetics, called GENETICS-I, has been developed. The system works on a simple genetic model in which only one phenotype character trait is considered. The phenotype is determined by a gene-pair, each gene havirfg a value of 0 or 1 (two alleles). A global data structure for the entire family is represented by a complete binary tree with the siblings for each tree node kept as a linked list using pointers. A local data structure is defined for each person in the family tree representing the phenotypes and genotypes for the individual and the parents. A knowledge base is established as a collection of production rules, such as “one of the two genes of each individual comes from the mother, the other from the father”. These rules are repeatedly applied on the database defined above to deduce new information. Although GENETICS-I is a simple model, it includes basic concepts for possible structures of the database, knowledge base, and inference mechanisms for more general genetic systems. Several possible extensions of the model are discussed.