title: The influence of nonrandom extra-pair paternity on heritability estimates derived from wild pedigrees.
abstract: Quantitative genetic analysis is often fundamental for understanding evolutionary processes in wild populations. Avian populations provide a model system due to the relative ease of inferring relatedness among individuals through observation. However, extra-pair paternity (EPP) creates erroneous links within the social pedigree. Previous work has suggested this causes minor underestimation of heritability if paternal misassignment is random and hence not influenced by the trait being studied. Nevertheless, much literature suggests numerous traits are associated with EPP and the accuracy of heritability estimates for such traits remains unexplored. We show analytically how nonrandom pedigree errors can influence heritability estimates. Then, combining empirical data from a large great tit (Parus major) pedigree with simulations, we assess how heritability estimates derived from social pedigrees change depending on the mode of the relationship between EPP and the focal trait. We show that the magnitude of the underestimation is typically small (<15%). Hence, our analyses suggest that quantitative genetic inference from pedigrees derived from observations of social relationships is relatively robust; our approach also provides a widely applicable method for assessing the consequences of nonrandom EPP.
authors: Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom. joshua.firth@zoo.ox.ac.uk.
authors: Josh A
authors: JA
authors: Firth
authors: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors: Jarrod D
authors: JD
authors: Hadfield
authors: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom.|School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors: Anna W
authors: AW
authors: Santure
authors: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom.
authors: Jon
authors: J
authors: Slate
authors: Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors: Ben C
authors: BC
authors: Sheldon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D046109:Passeriformes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D010375:Pedigree; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012098:Reproduction
keywords: Extra-pair copulations; SNP; misassigned paternity; pedigree error; pedigree simulation; quantitative genetics