Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 5, 2026

Assessing Differences in Sperm Competitive Ability in Drosophila
Published on: August 22, 2013
Genetic evaluation of traits distributed as Poisson-binomial with reference to reproductive characters
1Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, 61801, Urbana, IL, USA.
Abstract:
A procedure of genetic evaluation of reproductive traits such as litter size and survival in a polytocous species under the assumption of polygenic inheritance is described. Conditional distributions of these traits are assumed to be Poisson and Bernoulli, respectively. Using the concept of generalized linear models, logarithmic (litter size) and probit (survival) functions are described as linear combinations of "nuisance" environmental effects and of transmitting abilities of sires or individual breeding values. The liability of survival is expressed conditionally to the logarithm of litter size. Inferences on location parameters are based on the mode of their joint posterior density assuming a prior multivariate normal distribution. A method of estimation of the dispersion parameters is also presented. The use of a "truncated" Poisson distribution is suggested to account for missing records on litter size.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Poisson Probability Distribution
The...
What is Population Genetics?
Hardy-Weinberg Principle
Binomial Probability Distribution
The outcomes of a binomial experiment fit a binomial probability distribution. A statistical experiment can be classified as a binomial experiment if the following conditions are met:
There are a fixed number of trials. Think of trials as repetitions of an experiment. The letter n denotes the number of trials.
There are only two possible outcomes,...
Multiple Allele Traits
Law of Segregation

