Analysis of Allele Fidelity, Polymorphic Information Content, and Density of Microsatellites in a Genome-wide Screening for Hip Dysplasia in a Crossbreed Pedigree

Recent advances in genomics resources and tools are facilitating quantitative trait locus mapping. We developed a crossbreed pedigree for mapping quantitative trait loci for hip dysplasia in dogs by crossing dysplastic Labrador Retrievers and normal Greyhounds. We show that one advantage to using a crossbreed pedigree is the increased marker informativeness in the backcross/F2 population relative to the founder populations. We also discuss three factors that affect the detection power in the context of this crossbreed pedigree: being able to detect and correct genotyping errors, increasing marker density for chromosomes with a sparse coverage, and adding individuals to the mapping population as soon as they become available.