Statistical Dissection of Genetic Conflicts Associated with Pregnancy Complications

• Activity Number: 16
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 1, 2010 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Biometrics Section
• Author(s): Yuehua Cui*+ and Shaoyu Li
• Companies: Michigan State University and Michigan State University
• Keywords: Genetic conflict ; Genotype incompatibility ; Entropy

Abstract

Pregnancy is unique in mammals where significant interactions exit between a mother and her fetus through the placenta. Beyond the harmonious cooperation between a mother and her baby, there are also genetic conflicts that could cause complications to either a mother or her fetus. The genetic mechanism of conflict is complex and could be presented in different forms for different diseases. For example, it could occur when a mother has an allele that an offspring does not (termed gestational drive), or when an offspring has an allele that a mother does not (the famous RhD incompatibility), or whenever there is a mismatch between the maternal and the fetal genes. In this work, we propose an efficient statistical method to dissect various patterns of genetic conflicts associated with pregnancy complications. We show the utility of the method by simulations and a real data analysis.