Figure 3

Multilocus RMSE of r̂ between autotetraploids as a function of the number of alleles under a triangular allele frequency distribution. Six estimators were compared, including the polyploid maximum-likelihood estimator (ML, first row), the truncated polyploid method-of-moment estimator (MOM, second row), the truncated Ritland (1996) estimator (RI, third row) and their respective modified versions that support ambiguous genotypes (denoted by an asterisk after the estimator abbreviation). Two kinds of loci were simulated: (1) penta-allelic (n=5, two leftmost columns) and (2) deca-allelic loci (n=10, two rightmost columns). Results were obtained by generating 15 000–100 000 pairs of four relationships including parent–offspring (‘—’), full-sibs (‘– –’), half-sibs (‘– .’) and unrelated (‘…’) using Monte Carlo simulations.