The Relative Efficiency and Power of Small-Pedigree
Studies of the Heritability of a Quantitative Trait
Schork NJ, Schork MA
Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor.
Human Heredity, 43(1):1-11 (1993)
Abstract
Methods to determine the proportion of variability manifested by a quantitative trait that
is attributable to additive genetic effects are important tools for human population and
statistical geneticists. Though traditional methods based on parent-offspring and
sib-pair correlations have been well researched, they are being steadily supplanted or
complemented by more powerful pedigree-based variance-component techniques. In
this paper, a theoretical investigation of the relative efficiency and power of small (i.e., <
10 members) variance-component pedigree designs for heritability estimation is
undertaken. The information gain in adding sibs and generations to pedigrees is
discussed. Sample size guidelines based on theoretical power functions are offered, as
are directions for future research.
Variance component linkage analysis