A structural model of genome-wide association studies

Abstract

A structural genetic model incorporating a modern understanding of the genome and common practice in genome-wide association studies is derived mathematically. The model shows the Haldane map distance as a direct consequence of the structure of the genome. An expression for genetic correlation is derived under the model and compared to data resulting from the BSB mouse cross. A correlation test plot is introduced for this comparison and shows the close agreement of the model and empirical results. Noteworthy departures in this plot indicate regions which warrant further investigation.