Continuous variation caused by genes with graduated effects.

Abstract

The classical polygenic theory of inheritance postulates a large number of genes with small, and essentially similar, effects. We propose instead a model with genes of gradually decreasing effects. The resulting phenotypic distribution is not normal; if the gene effects are geometrically decreasing, it can be triangular. The joint distribution of parent and offspring genic value is calculated. The most readily testable difference between the two models is that, in the decreasing-effect model, the variance of the offspring distribution from given parents depends on the parents' genic values. The more the parents deviate from the mean, the smaller the variance of the offspring should be. In the equal-effect model the offspring variance is independent of the parents' genic values.