Comparison of multipoint linkage analyses for quantitative traits in the CEPH data: parametric LOD scores, variance components LOD scores, and Bayes factors

Abstract

Abstract We performed multipoint linkage analyses with multiple programs and models for several gene expression traits in the Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain families. All analyses provided consistent results for both peak location and shape. Variance-components (VC) analysis gave wider peaks and Bayes factors gave fewer peaks. Among programs from the MORGAN package, lm_multiple performed better than lm_markers, resulting in less Markov-chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) variability between runs, and the program lm_twoqtl provided higher LOD scores by also including either a polygenic component or an additional quantitative trait locus.