Heritability
Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_1860
Synonyms
Definition
Heritability is the proportion of phenotypic variance among individuals that can be attributed to genetic variance in a population. For a given trait (or phenotype) such as eye color, a researcher might wish to know how much of the total variance in the population is due to genetic causes. This variance, heritability (or h
2), is calculated by dividing genetic variance by phenotypic variance:
$${\rm h}^2 = {{{\rm Vg}} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{{\rm Vg}} {{\rm Vp}}}} \right. } {{\rm Vp}}}$$
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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011