The Estimation of Heritability by Regression of Offspring on Parent

Abstract

Since parents seldom have the same number of offspring, estimation of heritability by regression of offspring on parent requires some sort of weighting. Weights are derived which provide an unbiased linear estimator with approximately minimum variance. The degree of approximation depends on the accuracy with which one parameter in the model can be predicted. For a random mating population without epistasis the regression coeff. which estimates heritability can be related to the ratio of the additively genetic variance to the total variance in the population. The method is applied to a milk production study in Holsteins.