A method to detect recombination between a genetic marker and the QTL that it marks

Abstract

Some individual genetic markers show strong and apparently consistent effects on trait merit and are taken as causative mutations that can be used directly as fixed effects in marker-assisted selection programs. If the effect of such a marker is seen to decrease over time, key reasons include epistasis, where the effect depends on genetic background, and recombination, where the marker is in fact not causative, and strong linkage disequilibrium between the marker and the causative QTL is breaking down. This paper presents a method to detect the latter scenario, including calculation of the probability of a recombinant haplotype for each gamete contributing to each individual in a pedigree. This method requires only pedigree, phenotypes and genotypic information on the single marker. Missing marker genotypes are handled by the method, but with diminishing power. For biallelic markers, strong QTL effects are needed for the method to be of clear value. Given suitable results, breeders may chose to eliminate certain individuals from the breeding program in order to continue using the single genetic marker under high linkage disequilibrium with the causative QTL. Alternatively, other linked markers might be sought that can be used individually or in haplotype tests to restore strong LD for marker-assisted selection.