A framework for analyzing both linkage and association: an analysis of Genetic Analysis Workshop 16 simulated data

BMC Proc. 2009 Dec 15;3 Suppl 7(Suppl 7):S98. doi: 10.1186/1753-6561-3-s7-s98.

Abstract

We examine a Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo framework for simultaneous segregation and linkage analysis in the simulated single-nucleotide polymorphism data provided for Genetic Analysis Workshop 16. We conducted linkage only, linkage and association, and association only tests under this framework. We also compared these results with variance-component linkage analysis and regression analyses. The results indicate that the method shows some promise, but finding genes that have very small (<0.1%) contributions to trait variance may require additional sources of information. All methods examined fared poorly for the smallest in the simulated "polygene" range (h2 of 0.0015 to 0.0002).