Locating multiple interacting quantitative trait loci using robust model selection

One of the most popular criteria for model selection is the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). It is based on an asymptotic approximation using Bayes rule when the sample size tends to infinity and the dimension of the model is fixed. Although it works well in classical applications, it performs less satisfactorily for high dimensional problems, i.e. when the number of regressors is very large compared to the sample size. For this reason, an alternative version of the BIC has been proposed for the problem of mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) considered in genetics. One approach is to locate QTLs by using model selection in the context of a regression model with an extremely large number of potential regressors. Since the assumption of normally distributed errors is often unrealistic in such settings, we extend the idea underlying the modified BIC to the context of robust regression. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.