Table 2.
Number of environments (E
opt) and number of replications per environment (R
opt) maximizing the power of QTL detection 
at an experiment-wise error rate of 0.01
| Assumptions | Optimum allocation |
 (SE) |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | C dev | C geno | C fp | C env | E opt | R opt | N opt | h 2opt | |
| 1.25 | 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 16 | 2 | 563 | 0.941 | 0.992 (0.0014) |
| 15 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 16 | 2 | 569 | 0.941 | 0.992 (0.0014) | |
| 60 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 19 | 2 | 457 | 0.950 | 0.992 (0.0014) | |
| 30 | 200 | 15 | 25,000 | 16 | 1 | 1,809 | 0.914 | 0.998 (0.0006) | |
| 30 | 5,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 10 | 3 | 182 | 0.923 | 0.620 (0.0153) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 7.5 | 25,000 | 19 | 2 | 589 | 0.950 | 0.994 (0.0011) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 30 | 25,000 | 16 | 2 | 427 | 0.941 | 0.987 (0.0019) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 12,500 | 13 | 2 | 766 | 0.929 | 0.993 (0.0012) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 50,000 | 10 | 3 | 507 | 0.923 | 0.985 (0.0018) | |
| 2.5 | 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 10 | 2 | 1,692 | 0.909 | 0.998 (0.0007) |
| 15 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 13 | 2 | 1,548 | 0.929 | 0.998 (0.0007) | |
| 60 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 10 | 3 | 1,490 | 0.923 | 0.998 (0.0008) | |
| 30 | 200 | 15 | 25,000 | 19 | 2 | 2,531 | 0.950 | 1.000 (0.0003) | |
| 30 | 5,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 19 | 3 | 344 | 0.958 | 0.989 (0.0014) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 7.5 | 25,000 | 19 | 3 | 1,389 | 0.958 | 0.999 (0.0005) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 30 | 25,000 | 13 | 2 | 1,202 | 0.929 | 0.996 (0.0008) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 12,500 | 13 | 2 | 1,646 | 0.929 | 0.998 (0.0006) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 50,000 | 10 | 3 | 1,351 | 0.923 | 0.997 (0.0008) | |
| 5 | 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 10 | 2 | 3,571 | 0.909 | 0.999 (0.0005) |
| 15 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 7 | 3 | 3,628 | 0.894 | 0.999 (0.0005) | |
| 60 | 1,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 19 | 2 | 2,776 | 0.950 | 0.999 (0.0003) | |
| 30 | 200 | 15 | 25,000 | 10 | 1 | 12,500 | 0.870 | 1.000 (0.0003) | |
| 30 | 5,000 | 15 | 25,000 | 16 | 3 | 800 | 0.950 | 0.997 (0.0008) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 7.5 | 25,000 | 16 | 2 | 3,622 | 0.941 | 1.000 (0.0002) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 30 | 25,000 | 10 | 3 | 2,461 | 0.923 | 0.999 (0.0005) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 12,500 | 13 | 2 | 3,407 | 0.929 | 1.000 (0.0003) | |
| 30 | 1,000 | 15 | 50,000 | 10 | 3 | 3,041 | 0.923 | 0.999 (0.0005) | |
N opt the optimum number of recombinant inbred lines, h 2opt the optimum heritability on an entry mean basis, B the total budget in million $, C dev, C geno, and C fp the costs for (1) establishing one RIL, (2) genotyping one RIL, and (3) one field plot, respectively, C env the fixed costs for each environment
The number of quantitative trait loci was 50 and the second ratio of variance components (VC2) was used. For a detailed definition of the examined parameters see “Materials and methods”