A Maximum-Likelihood relatedness estimator allowing for negative relatedness values

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Konovalov, Dmitry A.;Heg, Dik
Abstract

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.

Journal

Molecular Ecology Resources

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Volume

8

ISBN/ISSN

1755-0998

Edition

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Issue

2

Pages Count

8

Location

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Publisher

Blackwell Publishing

Publisher Url

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Publisher Location

Oxford, United Kingdom

Publish Date

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Url

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Date

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EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01940.x