AUTHOR=Zheng Kehui , Yan Jiqiang , Deng Jiacong , Wu Weiren , Wen Yongxian 

TITLE=Modification of Experimental Design and Statistical Method for Mapping Imprinted QTLs Based on Immortalized F2 Population

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2020.589047

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2020.589047

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p>Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon, which plays important roles in the growth and development of animals and plants. Immortalized F<sub>2</sub> (imF<sub>2</sub>) populations generated by random cross between recombinant inbred (RI) or doubled haploid (DH) lines have been proved to have significant advantages for mapping imprinted quantitative trait loci (iQTLs), and statistical methods for this purpose have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a special type of imF<sub>2</sub> population (R-imF<sub>2</sub>) for iQTL mapping, which is developed by random reciprocal cross between RI/DH lines. We also propose two modified iQTL mapping methods: two-step point mapping (PM-2) and two-step composite point mapping (CPM-2). Simulation studies indicated that: (i) R-imF<sub>2</sub> cannot improve the results of iQTL mapping, but the experimental design can probably reduce the workload of population construction; (ii) PM-2 can increase the precision of estimating the position and effects of a single iQTL; and (iii) CPM-2 can precisely map not only iQTLs, but also non-imprinted QTLs. The modified experimental design and statistical methods will facilitate and promote the study of iQTL mapping.</p>