Assumption-Free Estimation of Heritability from Genome-Wide Identity-by-Descent Sharing between Full Siblings

The study of continuously varying, quantitative traits is important in evolutionary biology, agriculture, and medicine. Variation in such traits is attributable to many, possibly interacting, genes whose expression may be sensitive to the environment, which makes their dissection into underlying causative factors difficult. An important population parameter for quantitative traits is heritability, the proportion of total variance that is due to genetic factors. Response to artificial and natural selection and the degree of resemblance between relatives are all a function of this parameter. Following the classic paper by R. A. Fisher in 1918, the estimation of additive and dominance genetic variance and…

• MA
  Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation
• NH
  National Health and Medical Research Council

  Awards: 241944, 950998, 389892
• NI
  National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

  Awards: AA11998, AA007535, AA013326, AA07728, AA013320, AA014041