Partial genotyping at polymorphic markers can improve heritability estimates in sibling groups

Accurate estimates of heritability (h²) are necessary to assess adaptive responses of populations and evolution of fitness-related traits in changing environments. For plants, h² estimates generally rely on maternal progeny designs, assuming that offspring are either half-sibs or unrelated. However, plant mating systems often depart from half-sib assumptions, this can bias h² estimates. Here, we investigate how to accurately estimate h² in non-model species through the analysis of sibling designs with a moderate genotyping effort. We performed simulations to investigate how microsatellite marker information available for only a subset of offspring can improve h² estimates based on maternal progeny designs in presence of non-random mating, inbreeding in the parental population or maternal effects. We compared the basic family method, considering or not adjustments based on average relatedness coefficients, and methods based on the animal model. The animal model was used with average rela...