PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Dominique de Vienne
AU  - Julie B. Fiévet
TI  - Heterosis indices: What do we really measure?
AID  - 10.1101/800441
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 800441
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/10/10/800441.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/10/10/800441.full
AB  - Heterosis (hybrid vigor) is a universal phenomenon of crucial agro-economic and evolutionary importance. We show that the most common heterosis indices do not properly measure the deviation from additivity because they include both a component accounting for the “real” heterosis and a term that has no link with heterosis since it depends only on the parental values. Therefore these indices are ineffective whenever the aim of the studies is to compare heterosis levels between traits, environments, genetic backgrounds or developmental stages, as these factors may affect not only heterosis but also the parental values. This observation argues for the careful choice of heterosis indices according to the purpose of the work.