Wyman Nyquist's Notes on Statistical Genetics, with a focus on Animal and Plant Breeding

(Agronomy 615, Purdue University, Jan. 1990).

Wyman Nyquist (at Purdue University, March 2003)

 You are visitor number   since 16 March 2003 

These notes in statistical genetics were written for a course taught at Purdue University from 1972 to 1998. The main focus of the course was to provide the theoretical framework for designing and interpreting quantitative genetic studies in plant and animal breeding. These notes were written for the advanced animal-breeding and plant-breeding students in the 1970s and 1980s. The notes are not complete and not up-to-date. However, what is presented herein is believed to be of a basic nature and of interest to professional workers. The interested reader may well want to take an overall look at the table of contents and then read the preface. The preface is particularly important to read because it gives some history of the notes.

Selected Nyquist references:

  • W. E. Nyquist, 1991, Estimation of heritability and prediction of selection response in plant populations, Critical Rev. Plant Sci. 10:235-322.
  • J. B. Holland, W. E. Nyquist, and C. T. Cervantes-Martinez, 2003, Estimating and interpreting heritability for plant breeding: An update, Plant Breeding Reviews 22:9-112.

    The notes are posted as pdf files of the scanned originals.

    Current errata (March 2004)

    Introductory Material

    CHAPTERS

    1. General concepts [ 213 Kb, 5 pages ]

    2. Allelic, genotypic, and gametic frequencies [ 4,772 Kb, 1 page table of content, 88 pages of main text ]

    3. Large, random-mating populations [ 6,696 Kb, 2 pages for table of content, 115 pages of main text ]

    4. Genetic relationships between relatives [ 8,155 Kb, 2 pages for table of contents, 142 pages of main text ]

    5. Inbreeding within a large single population [ 1,622Kb, 1 page table of contents, 29 pages of main text ]

    6. Inbreeding in populations of finite size [ 12,151 Kb, 3 pages for table of contents, 205 pages of main text ]

    7. Recurrence relations and transition matrix theory of inbreeding [ 6,684 Kb, 1 page table of contents, 139 pages of main text ]

    8. Polygenic or quantitative inheritance: Noninbred populations [ 8,285 Kb, 1 page for Graphical outline, 3 pages for table of contents, 144 pages main text]

    9. Covariance between noninbred relatives [ 5,743 Kb, 2 pages for table of Contents, main text is 144 pages ]

    10. Estimation of genetic variances [ 1,203 Kb, 1 page for table of Contents, main text is 22 pages ]

    11. Inbred populations and covariances between inbred relatives [ 684 Kb, 1 page for table of Contents, main text is 13 pages ]

    12. Selection [ 1,449 Kb, 1 page for table of Contents, main text is 28 pages ]

    13. Fixed genetic models: Eberhart-Gardner model [ 2,590 Kb, 1 page for table of Contents, main text is 49 pages ]