searching for phenotypic causal networks involving complex traits an application to european quail寻找因果网络涉及复杂表型特征应用到欧洲鹌鹑.pdfVIP

Valente et al. Genetics Selection Evolution 2011, 43:37 Ge n e t i c s /content/43/1/37 Se l e c t i o n Evolution RESEARCH Open Access Searching for phenotypic causal networks involving complex traits: an application to European quail 1,2* 2,3 1 4 4 Bruno D Valente , Guilherme JM Rosa , Martinho A Silva , Rafael B Teixeira and Robledo A Torres Abstract Background: Structural equation models (SEM) are used to model multiple traits and the casual links among them. The number of different causal structures that can be used to fit a SEM is typically very large, even when only a few traits are studied. In recent applications of SEM in quantitative genetics mixed model settings, causal structures were pre-selected based on prior beliefs alone. Alternatively, there are algorithms that search for structures that are compatible with the joint distribution of the data. However, such a search cannot be performed directly on the joint distribution of the phenotypes since causal relationships are possibly masked by genetic covariances. In this context, the application of the Inductive Causation (IC) algorithm to the joint distribution of phenotypes conditional to unobservable genetic effects has been proposed. Methods: Here, we applied this approach to five traits in European quail: birth weight (BW), weight at 35 days of age (W35), age at first egg (AFE), average egg weight from 77 to 110 days of age (AEW), and number