Comparison of allele-sharing statistics for general pedigrees

The popularity of "non-parametric" linkage analysis using moderate and larg e sized pedigrees has increased in the last few years. Only a few of the ex isting allele-sharing statistics are applicable to general pedigrees, and e ven fewer are in common use. Little research has been done to compare the p ower of these statistics. We present some preliminary investigations into t he power of the most popular general-pedigree allele-sharing statistics. We show that there are indeed non-trivial differences among the statistics, a nd that further studies are warranted. In particular, pedigree structure an d the degree of recessiveness of the trait appear to be critical factors in determining which statistics are most powerful. Genet. Epidemiol. 19(Suppl 1):S92-S98, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.