Assessing the impact of pedigree attributes on the validity of quantitative genetic parameter estimates.

This article assesses how various pedigree attributes affect the validity of quantitative genetic (QG) parameter estimates, focusing on additive genetic variance (VA) and related components using human genealogical data from six French–Canadian regional populations. By simulating phenotypic traits along reconstructed pedigrees differing in size, depth, completeness, and genealogical error rates, the study finds that pedigree size and depth strongly influence the precision—but not necessarily the accuracy—of QG estimates, while completeness and entropy show weaker associations. Even low genealogical error rates (~0.6%) can cause detectable underestimation of VA, and inclusion of maternal genetic effects in models leads to greater underestimation of VA in smaller, shallower pedigrees. These results highlight the importance of conducting sensitivity analyses tailored to specific pedigree attributes when estimating genetic parameters in natural populations.