Comment on Three Papers about Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Tests in Autopolyploids

David Gerard (1)

1 AU - American University Washington D.C.

Three similar manuscripts, by many of the same authors, were recently published describing methods for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and random mating testing in autotetraploids [Sun, et al. Trends in Genetics, 37(6), 2021. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2020.11.006], autohexaploids [Wang, et al. Horticulture Research, 9, 2022. doi:10.1093/hr/uhac104], and autooctoploids [Wang, et al. Frontiers in Genetics, 12, 2021. doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.794907]. We found issues with these manuscripts, which we detail here. The main problems that we see are (i) extensive mistakes and implementation errors, (ii) confusion between random mating and equilibrium, (iii) confusion between allo- and autopolyploid inheritance, and (iv) poor hypothesis testing approaches. We provide examples and simulations when appropriate. All of our results are open and reproducible.

Mots clés: double reduction; equilibrium; Hardy–Weinberg; hypothesis tests; polyploids; random mating

Domaines: Génétique des populations [q-bio.PE]; Méthodologie [stat.ME]; Génétique des plantes; Bio-Informatique, Biologie Systémique [q-bio.QM]

David Gerard. Comment on Three Papers about Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Tests in Autopolyploids. Frontiers in Genetics, 2022, 13, ⟨10.3389/fgene.2022.1027209⟩. ⟨hal-03754674v2⟩