Summary
Nonparametric and parametric tests are suggested for detecting the presence of a major gene for a quantitative trait. The model for the determination of the quantitative trait is an additive one with polygenic, family environment, and individual environment components. The power functions with respect to the major gene effect have been calculated by simulation, and the tests have therefore been compared with each other. The tests have been applied to nuclear family data on human obesity, and the results compared with those obtained using other methods on the same data.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Carmelli D, Karlin S, Williams RR (1979) A class of indices to assess major-gene versus polygenic inheritance of distributive variables. In: Genetic analysis of common diseases: Applications to predictive factors in coronary disease. Alan R Liss Inc, NY, pp 259–270
Hollander M, Wolfe DA (1973) Nonparametric statistical methods. John Wiley, NY
Jayakar SD, Zonta-Sgaramella L, Galante A, Pennetti V (1978) The use of discriminant analysis to define obesity in children aged 7–11 years. Ann Hum Biol 5:547–555
Jayakar SD, Zonta-Sgaramella L, Astolfi P, Galante A, De Stefano GF, Pennetti V (1980) Selection of anthropometric variables and serum components in the definition of obesity. Coll Anthropol 4:155–161
Karlin S, Williams PT, Jensen S, Farquhar JW (1981) Genetic analysis of the Stanford LRC family study data: 1. Structured Exploratory Data analysis on height and weight measurements. Ann J Epidemiol 113:307–324
MacLean CJ, Morton NE, Elston RC, Yee S (1976) Skewness in commingled distributions. Biometrics 32:695–699
Ott J (1979) Detection of rare major genes in lipid levels. Hum Genet 51:79–91
Paganini-Hill A, Martin AO, Spence MA (1981) The S-leut anthropometric traits: genetics analysis. Am J Phys Anthropol 55:55–67
Rice J, Cloninger CR, Reich T (1980) Analysis of behavioral traits in the presence of cultural transmission and assortative mating: Applications to I.Q. and S.E.S. Behav Genet 10:73–92
Williamson JA, Bishop DT, Tavaré S, Tavaré GJ (1979) On the independence structure that exists within a pedigree with an application to testing for a major gene. In: Genetic analysis of common diseases: Applications to predictive factors in coronary disease. Alan R Liss Inc, NY, pp 271–276
Zonta-Sgaramella L, Jayakar SD, Galante A, Pennetti V (1979) Obesity in Italian children: regional differences in height, weight and skinfold thicknesses. Hum Biol 51:279–288
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was done while the author was a visitor at the Istituto di Genetica Biochemica ed Evoluzionistica, CNR, Pavia
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jayakar, S.D., Williamson, J.A. & Zonta-Sgaramella, L. A nonparametric and a parametric version of a test for the detection of the presence of a major gene applicable on data for the complete nuclear family. Hum Genet 67, 143–150 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00272989
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00272989