On the Additive and Dominant Variance and Covariance of Individuals Within the Genomic Selection Scope

Genomic evaluation models can fit additive and dominant SNP effects. Under quantitative genetics theory, additive or breeding values of individuals are generated by substitution effects, which involve both biological additive and dominant effects of the markers. Dominance deviations include only a portion of the biological dominant effects of the markers. Additive variance includes variation due to the additive and dominant effects of the markers. We describe a matrix of dominant genomic relationships across individuals, D, which is similar to the G matrix used in genomic best linear unbiased prediction. This matrix can be used in a mixed-model context for genomic evaluations or to estimate dominant and additive variances in the population. From the genotypic value of individuals, an alternative parameterization defines additive and dominance as the parts attributable to the additive and dominant effect of the markers. This approach underestimates the additive genetic variance and overestimates the dominance variance. Transforming the variances from one model into the other is trivial if the distribution of allelic frequencies is known. We illustrate these results with mouse data (four traits, 1884 mice, and 10,946 markers) and simulated data (2100 individuals and 10,000 markers). Variance components were estimated correctly in the model, considering breeding values and dominance deviations. For the model considering genotypic values, the inclusion of dominant effects biased the estimate of additive variance. Genomic models were more accurate for the estimation of variance components than their pedigree-based counterparts.