When using linkage analysis to perform genomic screening for complex traits, regions may be identified where two-point linkage analysis produces modest p-values that, taken individually, would not be considered to be suggestive of linkage. One approach is to combine information from correlated clusters of markers into regional linkage tests. In this study, the porperties of two classes of regional linkage test statistics, based on the t-statistics from the Haseman-Elston sib-pair test, were investigated over a range of heritabilities and different markers sets. Initial results based on a simulated 10 cM map suggest that the power for a moving average of two consecutive markers was larger than individual two-point tests. Larger gains in power were observed for moving averages of 3 to 5 consectutive t-tests. A follow-up study on the stochastic properties of the p-value under the alternative hypothesis in these simulations has been completed. Two manuscripts are in preparation.
