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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 2004 Jun 29;359(1446):873–890. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2003.1437

Estimating genetic parameters in natural populations using the "animal model".

Loeske E B Kruuk 1
PMCID: PMC1693385  PMID: 15306404

Abstract

Estimating the genetic basis of quantitative traits can be tricky for wild populations in natural environments, as environmental variation frequently obscures the underlying evolutionary patterns. I review the recent application of restricted maximum-likelihood "animal models" to multigenerational data from natural populations, and show how the estimation of variance components and prediction of breeding values using these methods offer a powerful means of tackling the potentially confounding effects of environmental variation, as well as generating a wealth of new areas of investigation.

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Selected References

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