Introduction to Quantitative Genetics

Genetic Components of Genetic Variance (cont.)

Interaction Genetic Variation - variation associated with the interactions between genes; the genetic basis of this variance is epistasis, and it is called the interaction genetic variance (VI).

The total genetic variance can be partitioned into the three forms of variance:

VG = VA + VD + VI

The total phenotypic variance can be rewritten as:

VP = VA + VD + VI + VE + VGE

Knowledge Gained from Measuring Genetic and Environmental Variances

  1. If a large portion of the variance is genetic, then gains can be made from selecting individuals with the metric value you wish to obtain.
  2. If the environmental variance is high, better performance would occur if the environment in which the individual is grown are optimized.