The distribution of genetic parameter estimates and confidence intervals from small disconnected diallels

Abstract

The distributions of genetic variance components and their ratios (heritability and type-B genetic correlation) from 105 pairs of six-parent disconnected half-diallels of a breeding population of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) were examined. A series of simulations based on these estimates were carried out to study the coverage accuracy of confidence intervals based on the usual t-method and several other alternative methods. Genetic variance estimates fluctuated greatly from one experiment to another. Both general combining ability variance (σ² _g ) and specific combining ability variance (σ² _s ) had a large positive skewness. For σ²_g and σ² _s , a skewness-adjusted t-method proposed by Boos and Hughes-Oliver (Am Stat 54:121–128, 2000) provided better upper endpoint confidence intervals than t-intervals, whereas they were similar for the lower endpoint. Bootstrap BCa-intervals (Efron and Tibshirani, An introduction to the bootstrap. Chapman & Hall, London 436 p, 1993) and Hall’s transformation methods (Zhou and Gao, Am Stat 54:100–104, 2000) had poor coverages. Coverage accuracy of Fieller’s interval endpoint(J R Stat Soc Ser B 16:175–185, 1954) and t-interval endpoint were similar for both h² and r _B for sample sizes n≤10, but for n=30 the Fieller’s method is much better.