Estimation of Variance for Reciprocal General and Specific Combining Ability Effects by EM‐AI Algorithm

In diallel analysis, using mixed models, it is possible to estimate the variance components of general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA), reciprocal GCA (RGCA), reciprocal SCA (RSCA), and parents, even in unbalanced datasets. These variances can be estimated by likelihood maximization via numerical algorithms (e.g., expectation maximization [EM] and average information [AI]), which have different advantages. Thus, the...