Michael Goddard is distinguished for his research intoquantitative genetics and thegenetic improvement of livestock, in particular by incorporation ofmolecular genetic data. He co-proposed and developed 'genomic selection' in which densemolecular markers are fitted to quantitative data by usinglinkage disequilibrium withQTL, thereby enabling more accurate selection decisions, including among animals withoutphenotypic records. Within a decade, it is being used world wide in animal improvement programmes and has potential inplant breeding and prediction of risk ofgenetic disease in humans. Goddard has made other major contributions to understanding the genetic basis of quantitativegenetic variation, showing that commonSNPs can collectively account for much of theheritability, and to inferences on population history.[3]
Goddard, M. E.; Hayes, B. J. (2009). "Mapping genes for complex traits in domestic animals and their use in breeding programmes".Nature Reviews Genetics.10 (6):381–391.doi:10.1038/nrg2575.PMID19448663.S2CID2111050.
Speliotes, E. K.; Willer, C. J.; Berndt, S. I.; Monda, K. L.; Thorleifsson, G; Jackson, A. U.; Lango Allen, H; Lindgren, C. M.; Luan, J; Mägi, R; Randall, J. C.; Vedantam, S; Winkler, T. W.; Qi, L; Workalemahu, T; Heid, I. M.; Steinthorsdottir, V; Stringham, H. M.; Weedon, M. N.; Wheeler, E; Wood, A. R.; Ferreira, T; Weyant, R. J.; Segrè, A. V.; Estrada, K; Liang, L; Nemesh, J; Park, J. H.; Gustafsson, S; et al. (2010)."Association analyses of 249,796 individuals reveal 18 new loci associated with body mass index".Nature Genetics.42 (11):937–48.doi:10.1038/ng.686.PMC3014648.PMID20935630.
