Genetic analysis combining path analysis with regressive models: the BETA path model of polygenic and familial environmental transmission.

We have extended the class D regressive model for the purpose of combined path and segregation analyses by incorporating the BETA path model. We have done this by expressing correlations among residuals from major genotype (RMGs) of family members under the class D regressive model as functions of path coefficients under the BETA path model. The likelihood function under the combined model was factorized into a product of conditional densities, which is dominated by bivariate normal densities. Statistical inferences under the combined model are analogous to those under the class D regressive model.