The possibilities of estimating relationships between traits with and without micro-genetic environmental sensitivity

Abstract

Genotype by environment interaction due to short term, localised differences in environmental conditions is caused by the animal's underlying micro-genetic environmental sensitivity (GES). Many traits across a variety of livestock species exhibit micro-GES, however little is known about the genetic relationship between environmental sensitivity in a statistical sense e.g. estimated micro-GES and more direct measure of sensitivity such as disease resistance. This paper investigated the possibility of using multi-trait models including a double hierarchical generalised linear model to examine the genetic relationships between a trait with and a trait without micro-GES. A simulation study was conducted with varying genetic parameters and data structures. Results showed that non-zero genetic correlations had the greatest impact on the accuracy of the estimated parameters, and resulted in an overestimation of the non-zero genetic correlations themselves.