From simulation studies it is known that the allocation of experimental resources has a crucial effect on power of QTL detection as well as on accuracy and precision of QTL estimates. In this study, we used a very large experimental data set composed of 976 F(5) maize testcross progenies evaluated in 19 environments and cross-validation to assess the effect of sample size (N), number of test en...

The traditional quantitative genetics model was used as the unifying approach to derive six existing and new definitions of genomic additive and dominance relationships. The theoretical differences of these definitions were in the assumptions of equal SNP effects (equivalent to across-SNP standardization), equal SNP variances (equivalent to within-SNP standardization), and expected or sample SN...

Interaction among individuals is universal, both in animals and in plants, and substantially affects evolution of natural populations and responses to artificial selection in agriculture. Although quantitative genetics has successfully been applied to many traits, it does not provide a general theory accounting for interaction among individuals and selection acting on multiple levels. Consequen...

While the machinery of quantitative genetics can blissfully function in complete ignorance of any of the underlying genetic details, we are certainly interested (at least one some level) on the genetic basis of trait variation. At the most practical level, if a gene of major effect is segregating in our population of interest, we would certainly like to not only to be aware of this, but also to...

While the machinery of quantitative genetics can blissfully function in complete ignorance of any of the underlying genetic details, we are certainly interested (at least one some level) on the genetic basis of trait variation. At the most practical level, if a gene of major effect is segregating in our population of interest, we would certainly like to not only to be aware of this, but also to...

Genomic approaches have accelerated the study of the quantitative genetics that underlie phenotypic variation. These approaches associate genome-scale analyses such as transcript profiling with targeted phenotypes such as measurements of specific metabolites. Additionally, these approaches can help identify uncharacterized networks or pathways. However, little is known about the genomic archite...

A complex binary trait is a character that has a dichotomous expression but with a polygenic genetic background. Mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) for such traits is difficult because of the discrete nature and the reduced variation in the phenotypic distribution. Bayesian statistics are proved to be a powerful tool for solving complicated genetic problems, such as multiple QTL with nonaddi...

While the machinery of quantitative genetics can blissfully function in complete ignorance of any of the underlying genetic details, we are certainly interested (at least one some level) on the genetic basis of trait variation. At the most practical level, if a gene of major effect is segregating in our population of interest, we would certainly like to not only to be aware of this, but also to...

Modern systems biology permits the study of complex networks, such as circadian clocks, and the use of complex methodologies, such as quantitative genetics. However, it is difficult to combine these approaches due to factorial expansion in experiments when networks are examined using complex methods. We developed a genomic quantitative genetic approach to overcome this problem, allowing us to e...

The genetic architecture of fitness-relevant traits in natural populations is a topic that has remained almost untouched by quantitative genetics. Given the importance of parasitism for the host's fitness, we used QTL mapping to study the genetic architecture of traits relevant for host-parasite interactions in the trypanosome parasite, Crithidia bombi and its host, Bombus terrestris. The three...