STANDARDIZATION OF MARKER INFORMATIVENESS MEASURES FOR DIFFERENT GENE MAPPING DESIGNS

Authors: Da, Yang; Vanraden, Paul; RON, MICHA - INST ANIM SCI ARO VOLCANI; BEEVER, JONATHAN - DEPT ANIM SCI UNIV OF IL; SONG, JIUZHOU - INST ANIM SCI ARO VOLCANI; Wiggans, George; MA, RUNLIN - DEPT ANIM SCI UNIV OF IL; WELLER, JOEL - INST ANIM SCI ARO VOLCANI; LEWIN, HARRIS - DEPT ANIM SCI UNIV OF IL

Submitted to: Plant Genome Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/11/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Large-scale gene mapping efforts for domestic animals have generated and mapped a large number of genetic markers, which are useful for parentage testing and mapping quantitative trait and disease loci. Measures of marker informativeness are helpful when selecting genetic markers and can be calculated when allele frequencies are available. However, reliable estimates of allele frequencies may not be available from some gene mapping designs. Thus, two measures of marker informativeness that do not require prior knowledge of allele frequencies were analyzed: the observed polymorphic information content (PIC) and the observed family information content (FIC), which was defined as the expected frequency of offspring that can identify parental allele transmission unequivocally per heterozygous parent. The FIC was found to be more stable than PIC. Both measures were standardized to account for different genotyping schemes. Effective number of alleles was defined as the required number of alleles with equal allele frequency to achieve the observed FIC. This measure was found to be the most appropriate criterion to measure the degree of polymorphism of 247 microsatellite genetic markers analyzed in half-sib families. The effective number of alleles is independent of the experimental design and can be used to derive standardized estimates of heterozygosity, PIC, and exclusion probability.