title: Linkage between loci of quantitative traits and marker loci: multi-trait analysis with a single marker.
abstract: An efficient approach to increase the resolution power of linkage analysis between a quantitative trait locus (QTL) and a marker is described in this paper. It is based on a counting of the correlations between the QTs of interest. Such correlations may be caused by the segregation of other genes, environmental effects and physiological limitations. Let a QT locus A/a affect two correlated traits, x and y. Then, within the framework of mixture models, the accuracy of the parameter estimates may be seriously increased, if bivariate densities f aa(x, y), f Aa(x, y) and f AA(x, y) rather than the marginals are considered as the basis for mixture decomposition. The efficiency of the proposed method was demonstrated employing Monte-Carlo simulations. Several types of progeny were considered, including backcross, F2 and recombinant inbred lines. It was shown that provided the correlation between the traits involved was high enough, a good resolution to the problem is possible even if the QTL groups are strongly overlapping for their marginal densities.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Y I
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Ronin
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Kirzhner
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Korol