Modeling Effects of Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA using Extended Pedigrees in the Utah Population Database

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Abstract:

Historically, biometric analyses of extended pedigrees have presented a number of challenges for researchers.  Large and complicated data structures led to even larger and more complicated modeling approaches.  In this talk, we present several solutions to these challenges and apply them to the search for mitochondrial DNA effects on longevity in the Utah Population Database.  First, we present a general method of identifying variance component models common to behavior genetics, and apply this method to a simple model of mitochondrial DNA effects.  Second, we present a method for finding independent extended pedigrees when given information only on child-mother-father trios, and subsequently show how to apply path tracing rules to calculate both additive genetic relatedness and mitochondrial relatedness in arbitrarily large extended pedigrees.  Finally, we illustrate several approaches to fitting a model of longevity that separately accounts for both additive genetic and mitochondrial DNA effects.