X chromosome effects and their interactions with mitochondrial effects

Abstract

We report a simple and rapid method for detecting additive genetic variance due to X-linked loci in the absence of marker data for this chromosome. We examined the interaction of this method with an established method for detecting mitochondrial linkage (another source of sex-asymmetric genetic covariance). When applied to data from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism, this method found evidence of X-chromosomal linkage for one continuous trait (ntth1) and one discrete trait (SPENT). Evidence of mitochondrial contribution was found for one discrete trait (CRAVING) and three continuous traits (ln(CIGPKYR), ecb21, and tth1). Results for ntth1 suggest that methods that do not also allow for male-female heterogeneity in environmental variance may be overly conservative in detection of X-chromosomal effects.