SRP54 locus genotypes of white-tailed deer from Jamieson et al.

<p>Estimating heritability (<i>h</i>²) is required to predict the response to selection and is useful in species that are managed or farmed using trait information. Estimating <i>h</i>² in free-ranging populations is challenging due to the need for pedigrees; genomic-relatedness matrices (GRMs) circumvent this need and can be implemented in nearly any system where phenotypic and genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are available. We estimated the heritability of five body and three antler traits in a free-ranging population of white-tailed deer (<i>Odocoileus virginianus</i>) on Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada. We generated classic and robust GRMs from &gt;10,000 SNPs: hind foot length, dressed body mass and peroneus muscle mass had high <i>h</i>²values of 0.62, 0.44 and 0.55, respectively. Heritability in male-only antler features ranged from 0.07 to 0.33 and had high standard errors. We explored the influence of filtering by minor allele frequency and data completion on <i>h</i>²: GRMs derived from fewer SNPs had reduced <i>h</i>² estimates and the relatedness coefficients significantly deviated from those generated with more SNPs. As a corollary, we discussed limitations to the application of GRMs in the wild, notably how skewed GRMs, specifically many unrelated individuals, can increase variance around <i>h</i>² estimates. This is the first study to estimate <i>h</i>²on a free-ranging population of white-tailed deer and should be informative for breeding designs and management as these traits should respond to selection.</p>