Missing Data and Interval Mapping

Abstract

In the preceding chapters we have assumed that all marker genotypes are known exactly. In practice there are often missing genotypes; and even when the genotypes of actual markers are not missing, one can regard the positions between actual markers as potential markers, the genotypes of which are missing. One can then make an attempt to reconstruct the missing information by statistical means. For important reasons that will become apparent in Chap. 9, problems of missing information are even more acute in outbred populations, and in particular humans. In this chapter we introduce, in the relatively simple situation of crosses between inbred strains, some basic techniques that are particularly useful for dealing with different kinds of missing information that arise in problems of gene mapping. In later chapters we will discuss more general approaches that can handle more complex situations.