Search for heterozygosis in quantitative characters

A method is described of searching for heterozygotes in a quantitative character, based on the idea that heterozygotes have more variable children than homozygotes. The variability in a set of sibs is therefore partitioned into components from the mother and father, using a least squares technique; a large component indicates a probably heterozygous parent. The method is tried out on dermatoglyphic data.