High-resolution association mapping of quantitative trait loci: a population-based approach

In this article, population-based regression models are proposed for high-resolution linkage disequilibrium mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL). Two regression models, the "genotype effect model" and the "additive effect model," are proposed to model the association between the markers and the trait locus. The marker can be either diallelic or multiallelic. If only one marker is used, the method is similar to a classical setting by Nielsen and Weir, and the additive effect model is equivalent to the haplotype trend regression (HTR) method by Zaykin et al. If two/multiple marker data with phase ambiguity are used in the analysis, the proposed models can be used to analyze the data directly. By analytical formulas, we show that the genotype effect model can be used to model the additive and dominance effects simultaneously; the additive effect model takes care of the additive effect only. On the basis of the two models, F-test statistics are proposed to test association between the QTL and markers. By a simulation study, we show that the two models have reasonable type I error rates for a data set of moderate sample size. The noncentrality parameter approximations of F-test statistics are derived to make power calculation and comparison. By a simulation study, it is found that the noncentrality parameter approximations of F-test statistics work very well. Using the noncentrality parameter approximations, we compare the power of the two models with that of the HTR. In addition, a simulation study is performed to make a comparison on the basis of the haplotype frequencies of 10 SNPs of angiotensin-1 converting enzyme (ACE) genes.