Redefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafounders

Abstract Metafounders are a useful concept to characterize relationships within and across populations, and to help genetic evaluations because they help modelling the means and variances of unknown base population animals. Current definitions of metafounder relationships are sensitive to the choice...

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Main Authors: Andres Legarra, Matias Bermann, Quanshun Mei, Ole F. Christensen
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: BMC 2024-05-01
Series:Genetics Selection Evolution
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12711-024-00891-w
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author Andres Legarra
Matias Bermann
Quanshun Mei
Ole F. Christensen
author_facet Andres Legarra
Matias Bermann
Quanshun Mei
Ole F. Christensen
author_sort Andres Legarra
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Metafounders are a useful concept to characterize relationships within and across populations, and to help genetic evaluations because they help modelling the means and variances of unknown base population animals. Current definitions of metafounder relationships are sensitive to the choice of reference alleles and have not been compared to their counterparts in population genetics—namely, heterozygosities, F ST coefficients, and genetic distances. We redefine the relationships across populations with an arbitrary base of a maximum heterozygosity population in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Then, the relationship between or within populations is a cross-product of the form $${\Gamma }_{\left(b,{b}^{\prime}\right)}=\left(\frac{2}{n}\right)\left(2{\mathbf{p}}_{b}-\mathbf{1}\right)\left(2{\mathbf{p}}_{{b}^{\prime}}-\mathbf{1}\right)^{\prime}$$ Γ b , b ′ = 2 n 2 p b - 1 2 p b ′ - 1 ′ with $$\mathbf{p}$$ p being vectors of allele frequencies at $$n$$ n markers in populations $$b$$ b and $$b^{\prime}$$ b ′ . This is simply the genomic relationship of two pseudo-individuals whose genotypes are equal to twice the allele frequencies. We also show that this coding is invariant to the choice of reference alleles. In addition, standard population genetics metrics (inbreeding coefficients of various forms; F ST differentiation coefficients; segregation variance; and Nei’s genetic distance) can be obtained from elements of matrix $${\varvec{\Gamma}}$$ Γ .
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issn 1297-9686
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series Genetics Selection Evolution
spelling doaj-art-70659fe334ce4d1aad79e5e05221a3202025-08-20T02:13:27ZdeuBMCGenetics Selection Evolution1297-96862024-05-015611710.1186/s12711-024-00891-wRedefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafoundersAndres Legarra0Matias Bermann1Quanshun Mei2Ole F. Christensen3CDCBAnimal and Dairy Science, University of GeorgiaDepartment of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public HealthCenter for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus UniversityAbstract Metafounders are a useful concept to characterize relationships within and across populations, and to help genetic evaluations because they help modelling the means and variances of unknown base population animals. Current definitions of metafounder relationships are sensitive to the choice of reference alleles and have not been compared to their counterparts in population genetics—namely, heterozygosities, F ST coefficients, and genetic distances. We redefine the relationships across populations with an arbitrary base of a maximum heterozygosity population in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Then, the relationship between or within populations is a cross-product of the form $${\Gamma }_{\left(b,{b}^{\prime}\right)}=\left(\frac{2}{n}\right)\left(2{\mathbf{p}}_{b}-\mathbf{1}\right)\left(2{\mathbf{p}}_{{b}^{\prime}}-\mathbf{1}\right)^{\prime}$$ Γ b , b ′ = 2 n 2 p b - 1 2 p b ′ - 1 ′ with $$\mathbf{p}$$ p being vectors of allele frequencies at $$n$$ n markers in populations $$b$$ b and $$b^{\prime}$$ b ′ . This is simply the genomic relationship of two pseudo-individuals whose genotypes are equal to twice the allele frequencies. We also show that this coding is invariant to the choice of reference alleles. In addition, standard population genetics metrics (inbreeding coefficients of various forms; F ST differentiation coefficients; segregation variance; and Nei’s genetic distance) can be obtained from elements of matrix $${\varvec{\Gamma}}$$ Γ .https://doi.org/10.1186/s12711-024-00891-w
spellingShingle Andres Legarra
Matias Bermann
Quanshun Mei
Ole F. Christensen
Redefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafounders
Genetics Selection Evolution
title Redefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafounders
title_full Redefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafounders
title_fullStr Redefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafounders
title_full_unstemmed Redefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafounders
title_short Redefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafounders
title_sort redefining and interpreting genomic relationships of metafounders
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s12711-024-00891-w
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AT olefchristensen redefiningandinterpretinggenomicrelationshipsofmetafounders