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A statistical framework for genetic association studies of power curves in bird flight

Biological Procedures Online volume 8, pages 164–174 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

How the power required for bird flight varies as a function of forward speed can be used to predict the flight style and behavioral strategy of a bird for feeding and migration. A U-shaped curve was observed between the power and flight velocity in many birds, which is consistent to the theoretical prediction by aerodynamic models. In this article, we present a general genetic model for fine mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for power curves in a sample of birds drawn from a natural population. This model is developed within the maximum likelihood context, implemented with the EM algorithm for estimating the population genetic parameters of QTL and the simplex algorithm for estimating the QTL genotype-specific parameters of power curves. Using Monte Carlo simulation derived from empirical observations of power curves in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), we demonstrate how the underlying QTL for power curves can be detected from molecular markers and how the QTL detected affect the most appropriate flight speeds used to design an optimal migration strategy. The results from our model can be directly integrated into a conceptual framework for understanding flight origin and evolution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Statistics, University of Florida, 32611, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Min Lin, Wei Zhao & Rongling Wu

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  1. Min Lin
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  2. Wei Zhao
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  3. Rongling Wu
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Correspondence to Rongling Wu.

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Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Lin, M., Zhao, W. & Wu, R. A statistical framework for genetic association studies of power curves in bird flight. Biol. Proced. Online 8, 164–174 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1251/bpo125

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1251/bpo125

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Biological Procedures Online

ISSN: 1480-9222

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