QTL 作图标记密度及群体大小(Li 2010英).docVIP

Heredity (2010) 105, 257–267 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved 0018-067X/10 $32.00 /hdy ORIGINAL ARTICLE Statistical properties of QTL linkage mapping in biparental genetic populations H Li1,2, S Hearne3, M Ba¨nziger4, Z Li2 and J Wang1 1Institute of Crop Science, The National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement and CIMMYT China, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, PR China; 2School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China; 3International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria and 4International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, DF, Mexico  Quantitative trait gene or locus (QTL) mapping is routinely used in genetic analysis of complex traits. Especially in practical breeding programs, questions remain such as how large a population and what level of marker density are needed to detect QTLs that are useful to breeders, and how likely it is that the target QTL will be detected with the data set in hand. Some answers can be found in studies on conventional interval mapping (IM). However, it is not clear whether the conclusions obtained from IM are the same as those obtained using other methods. Inclusive composite interval mapping (ICIM) is a useful step forward that highlights the importance of model selection and interval testing in QTL linkage mapping. In this study, we investigate the statistical properties of ICIM compared with IM through simulation. Results indicate that IM is less  responsive to marker density and population size (PS). The increase in marker density helps ICIM identify indepen-dent QTLs explaining 45% of phenotypic variance. When PS is 4200, ICIM achieves unbiased estimations of QTL position and effect. For smaller PS, there is a tendency for the QTL to be located toward the center of the chromosome, with its effect overestimated. The use of dense markers makes linked QTL isolated by empty marker intervals