摘要：Random-effects models are a popular tool for analysing total narrow-sense heritability for quantitative phenotypes, on the basis of large-scale SNP data. Recently, there have been disputes over the validity of conclusions that may be drawn from such analysis. We derive some of the fundamental statistical properties of heritability estimates arising from these models, showing that the bias will generally be small. We show that the score function may be manipulated into a form that facilitates intelligible interpretations of the results. We go on to use this score function to explore the behavior of the model when certain key assumptions of the model are not satisfied — shared environment, measurement error, and genetic effects that are confined to a small subset of sites.
