TY - JOUR
T1 - Biochemical heterozygosity and phenotypic variability of polygenic traits
AU - Chakraborty, Ranajit
N1 - Funding Information:
Health Service research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Comments from Drs W. J. Schull, M. Nei, C. Stephens, and C. L. Hanis are greatly appreciated.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This work is supported by U.S. Public
PY - 1987/8
Y1 - 1987/8
N2 - Using the theory of additive genetic variability of a polygenic trait, it is shown than an individual’s heterozygosity at the loci governing the trait cannot be determined accurately from observations on phenotypes alone. Furthermore, the negative association between heterozygosity and phenotypic variance, and a positive correlation of the frequency of the modal class of a phenotypic trait and the extent of heterozygosity can be explained by additive allelic effects. It is argued that while the number of heterozygous loci in an individual may not be a good indicator of the individual’s genomic heterozygosity, there is evidence that some of the biochemical loci may reflect genetic variation at the loci controlling phenotypic polymorphism. Thus the observed relationship between biochemical heterozygosity and phenotypic variance may not constitute hard evidence of heterosis, overdominance, or associative overdominance.
AB - Using the theory of additive genetic variability of a polygenic trait, it is shown than an individual’s heterozygosity at the loci governing the trait cannot be determined accurately from observations on phenotypes alone. Furthermore, the negative association between heterozygosity and phenotypic variance, and a positive correlation of the frequency of the modal class of a phenotypic trait and the extent of heterozygosity can be explained by additive allelic effects. It is argued that while the number of heterozygous loci in an individual may not be a good indicator of the individual’s genomic heterozygosity, there is evidence that some of the biochemical loci may reflect genetic variation at the loci controlling phenotypic polymorphism. Thus the observed relationship between biochemical heterozygosity and phenotypic variance may not constitute hard evidence of heterosis, overdominance, or associative overdominance.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84966151604&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/hdy.1987.92
DO - 10.1038/hdy.1987.92
M3 - Article
C2 - 3610658
AN - SCOPUS:84966151604
SN - 0018-067X
VL - 59
SP - 19
EP - 28
JO - Heredity
JF - Heredity
IS - 1
ER -