Module dates/times: Monday, July 15; 8:30 a.m. -5 p.m.; Tuesday, July 16, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., and Wednesday, July 17, 8:30 a.m.-Noon
This module assumes the material in Modules 1 and 5 and it provides a foundation for many later modules.
Quantitative Genetics is the analysis of complex characters where both genetic and environment factors contribute to trait variation. Since this includes most traits of interest, such as disease susceptibility, crop yield, growth and reproduction in animals, human and animal behavior, and all gene expression data (transcriptome and proteome), a working knowledge of quantitative genetics is critical in diverse fields from plant and animal breeding, human genetics, genomics, behavior, to ecology and evolutionary biology.
The course will cover the basics of quantitative genetics including: genetic basis for complex traits, population genetic assumptions including detection of admixture, Fisher's variance decomposition, covariance between relatives, calculation of the numerator relationship matrix based on IBD alleles and an arbitrary pedigree, the genomic relationship matrix based on AIS alleles, heritability in the broad and narrow sense, inbreeding and cross-breeding, and response to selection. Suggested pairing: All later modules.
Access 2018 course materials through the Summer Institutes archives.
Guilherme Rosa is Professor of Animal Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He teaches courses and develops research on quantitative genetics and statistical genomics, including design of experiments and data analysis tools. Some specific areas of interest include mixed effects models, graphical models, Bayesian analysis and Monte Carlo methods, and prediction of complex traits using genomic information. He recently published ``One hundred years of statistical developments in animal breeding.'' Annual Review of Animal Biosciences 3: 19-56, 2015
Bruce Walsh is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Public Health, and Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona. His interests are in applications of quantitative and statistical genetics to a diverse array from problems, from breeding to human genetics and evolution. He is the co-author of two of the leading texts in the field of quantitative genetics: ``Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Characters'' (980 pp. Sinauer Associations) and ``Evolution and Selection Quantitative Traits'' (1500 pp. Oxford University Press).