Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Incorporating Molecular Markers And Causal Structure Among Traits Using A Smith-Hazel Index And Structural Equation Models, Juan Valente Hidalgo-Contreras, Josafhat Salinas-Ruiz, Kent M. Eskridge, Stephen P. Baenziger

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

The goal in breeding programs is to choose candidates that produce offspring with the best phenotypes. In conventional selection, the best candidate is selected with high genotypic values (unobserved), in the assumption that this is related to the observed phenotypic values for several traits. Multi-trait selection indices are used to identify superior genotypes when a number of traits are to be considered simultaneously. Often, the causal relationship among the traits is well known. Structural equation models (SEM) have been used to describe the causal relationships among variables in many biological systems. We present a method for multi-trait genomic selection that …