IDENTIFYING GENETIC-MARKERS TO ASSESS THE PRESENCE OF GENE-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS

We analyzed a randomly chosen replicate with the goals of locating the closest markers to the genes involved in the discrete trait and utili zing these as surrogates for the genes in assessing the presence of ge ne-environment interactions. We screened the markers with an associati on test prior to using the transmission-disequilibrium test. We perfor med a segregation analysis, with regressive models and including the s elected markers, to understand the underlying genetic mechanism and th e role of the environmental factor. We were unsuccessful in locating t he relevant markers due to the absence of linkage disequilibrium. Neve rtheless, some insights were gained from the methods used. (C) 1997 Wi ley-Liss, Inc.