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A graph‐theoretic approach to the partition of individuals into full‐sib families
Author(s) -
Beyer Jennifer,
May Bernie
Publication year - 2003
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.2003.01886.x
Subject(s) - pairwise comparison , biology , locus (genetics) , graph , partition (number theory) , combinatorics , mathematics , genetics , statistics , gene
We present an algorithm to partition a single generation of individuals into full‐sib families using single‐locus co‐dominant marker data. Pairwise likelihood ratios are used to create a graph that represents the full‐sib relationships within the data set. Connected‐component and minimum‐cut algorithms from the graph theory are then employed to find the full‐sib families within the graph. The results of a large‐scale simulation study show that the algorithm is able to produce accurate partitions when applied to data sets with eight or more loci. Although the algorithm performs best when the distribution of allele frequencies and family sizes in a data set is uniform, the inclusion of more loci or alleles per locus allows accurate partitions to be created from data sets in which these distributions are highly skewed.