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Marker‐inferred relatedness as a tool for detecting heritability in nature
Author(s) -
Ritland Kermit
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2000.00971.x
Subject(s) - biology , heritability , evolutionary biology , pairwise comparison , population , microsatellite , trait , genetic variation , variation (astronomy) , quantitative trait locus , genetics , statistics , allele , mathematics , gene , demography , physics , sociology , computer science , astrophysics , programming language
This paper presents a perspective of how inferred relatedness, based on genetic marker data such as microsatellites or amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), can be used to demonstrate quantitative genetic variation in natural populations. Variation at two levels is considered: among pairs of individuals within populations, and among pairs of subpopulations within a population. In the former, inferred pairwise relatedness, combined with trait measures, allow estimates of heritability ‘in the wild’. In the latter, estimates of Q ST are obtained, in the absence of known heritabilities, via estimates of pairwise F ST . Estimators of relatedness based on the ‘Kronecker operator’ are given. Both methods require actual variation of relationship, a rarely studied aspect of population structure, and not necessarily present. Some conditions for appropriate population structures in the wild are identified, in part through a review of recent studies.