An HMM-based boundary-flexible model of human haplotype variation

The construction of a meaningful and detailed description of haplotype variation holds the promise for more powerful genetic association studies. The segmentation of the human genome into blocks of limited haplotype diversity has been successfully employed by models that describe common variation. Some computational models of haplotype variation are flawed, however: they arbitrarily sever all haplotypes at block boundaries and assume that block boundaries are areas of free recombination. In reality, haplotypes break up when they recombine, and many past recombination events are predicted to occur at sites of occasional recombination. Thus, the genuine unit of shared genetic variation should often cross block boundaries, or sometimes end between them. This work seeks the truer mosaic structure of human haplotypes through flexible haplotype boundaries. This thesis introduces an HMM-based boundary-flexible model, and proves that this model is superior to a blockwise description via the Minimum Description Length (MDL) criterion.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Sheffi, Jonathan, 1981-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mark J. Daly and David M. Altshuler.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17993

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17993