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Estimation of genetic parameters and breeding values in honey bees
Estimation of breeding values and variance components in honey bees is complex due to bees’ reproduction system. It complicates calculation of the numerator relationships matrix (NRM). Mixed model methodology to estimate breeding values in honey bees was developed by Bienefeld (2007) (BER). To invert NRM they used a diagonal matrix of Mendelian sampling terms as an approximation of a more realistic block diagonal matrix.
Brascamp and Bijma (2014) developed the necessary algebra for elements in NRM including these blocks and compared breeding value estimation using both methods with the same genetic parameters for both. In this paper we estimate these genetic parameters with ASReml. It appears that BER in particular underestimates the additive genetic variance for worker effect and also estimates the genetic correlation (true value -0.50) closer to zero. For the ranking of breeding animals differences are small.
Keywords:
honey bees
estimation genetic parameters
estimation breeding values
