Efficiency of the multilocus analysis for the construction of genetic maps

Abstract

The use of genetic maps is a useful tool in genetic research. The association between map distance and recombination frequency is expressed by a genetic mapping function. However, several of these functions do not presuppose the joint recombination percentage. In other words, they are not multilocus probabilities. This work aimed to compare, through simulations, the efficiency in the use of different mapping functions with and without multilocus analysis as a tool in the construction of genetic maps. A genome constituted of three linkage groups (50, 100 and 200 cM) was simulated for a comparative study. Four mapping populations were simulated, F2, with 50, 100, 200 and 400 individuals, with 10 replicas each. It was verified, after the analyses, that the multilocus analysis was not efficient to rescue the size of the connection groups, concluding that the non use of the multilocus analysis would be viable.