Optimal genetic designs for estimating narrow-sense heritability. 1. Proposed framework with MINQUE, REML, and Henderson's method III

A series of methods to enable estimation of narrow-sense heritability is organized under a framework that determines the variance-covariance matrix of the observation vector and then proceeds to directly estimate additive variance components. Estimation is accomplished under a more complex genetic model that allows for dominance. Estimating the dominance variance component improves the quality of the estimated narrow-sense heritability. The framework examines minimum norm quadratic unbiased estimation, restricted maximum likelihood estimation, and Henderson’s method III. The delta method is used for providing the standard errors of the estimates. An example with selfing in peanut breeding is discussed.