Bayesian point estimation of quantitative trait loci

In this article, we consider the problem of the estimation of quantitative trait loci (QTL), those chromosomal regions at which genetic information affecting some quantitative trait is encoded. Generally the number of such encoding sites is unknown, and associations between neutral molecular marker genotypes and observed trait phenotypes are sought to locate them. We consider a Bayesian model for simple experimental designs, and discuss the existing approaches to inference for this problem. In particular, we focus on locating positions of the best candidate markers segregating for the trait, a situation which is of primary interest in comparative mapping. We introduce a loss function for estimating both the number of QTL and their location, and we illustrate its application via simulated and real data.