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TECHNICAL ADVANCES: A maximum‐likelihood relatedness estimator allowing for negative relatedness values
Author(s) -
KONOVALOV DMITRY A.,
HEG DIK
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
molecular ecology resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.96
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1755-0998
pISSN - 1755-098X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01940.x
Subject(s) - estimator , statistics , biology , maximum likelihood , pairwise comparison , restricted maximum likelihood , monte carlo method , mathematics , econometrics
Previously reported maximum‐likelihood pairwise relatedness ( r ) estimator of Thompson and Milligan (M) was extended to allow for negative r estimates under the regression interpretation of r . This was achieved by establishing the equivalency of the likelihoods used in the kinship program and the likelihoods of Thompson. The new maximum‐likelihood (ML) estimator was evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations. It was found that the new ML estimator became unbiased significantly faster compared to the original M estimator when the amount of genotype information was increased. The effects of allele frequency estimation errors on the new and existing relatedness estimators were also considered.