Linkage disequilibrium mapping of complex genetic diseases using multiallelic markers

Various measures of allelic association are proposed and applied to affection status and markers in the region of major gene 6. The performance of the measures are compared in bias and efficiency to estimate the location of major gene 6. Since the aim is to find disease specific genes, corrections for covariates and environmental factors are made. Furthermore, all the measures allow for more than one allele to be associated with the trait. The location of the disease gene is estimated by fitting a quadratic curve with allelic association as dependent and the position of the marker as independent variable. Confidence intervals are obtained by applying Fieller's theorem. Two of the three proposed measures succeeded in finding the true position of gene 6. Since this is a fine mapping approach, we asked for the answers. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.