*.Asc Files From Capillary Sequencing

Question

[onter]

I've got a number of *.asc files from some capillary seqeuencing, in which the README proclaims the following format. If anyone has experience with this format, I'd really like to understand how the fragment size relates to the number of nucleotides in the allele. Any input or speculations welcome! I have not been able to find information on this file format anywhere...

AFM240zf4 <--------probe name field at line 1 
(AC)n <--------probe description field 
D20S181 <--------D-number from GDB
Z23780 <--------gene symbol (or Z-number from Genbank)
4 <--------number of fragments 
4 <--------number of alleles (up to 36 alleles) 
20 <--------chromosome (1 to 22, 23 is X, 24 is Y, 25 is pseudoautosome) 
q <--------arm of this chromosome (p, q, b for both or c for centromere)
0.000000E+00 <--------cytogenetic location *
0.000000E+00 <--------cytogenetic location **
0.000000E+00 <--------gene location
5.555556e-01 <--------observed heterozygote frequency 
102193 <--------last update mmddyy 
p <--------status p (published) u (unpublished), all data considered published
0 <--------Reliability 
42 0 0 0 <--------CEPH collaborator code number 
Genotyped <--------interpretation
1.600000E-01 1.560000E-01 1.640000E-01 1.660000E-01 <-- size of fragments 
1 2 3 4 <-- correspondence alleles/fragment
3.888889e-01 2.500000e-01 3.611111e-01 0.000000e+00 <-- allelic frequencies

[Pierre Lindenbaum]

cross posted on SE: http://seqanswers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40405