Power of QTL identification.

Success rate for detecting a QTL with p<0.05 in 1,000 simulations of 50 colonies (or 150 colonies in the case of the “pool-150” results), with individual sequencing of 1 to 30 samples or pool-seq, and with varying levels of environmental noise. Different colors show different levels of noise that affect the phenotype (P.E.V. = percent explained variation; i.e. the percent of phenotypic variation that is explained by the QTL). The dotted lines illustrate the number of individual samples that provides equivalent power as a pool when only 50 colonies are used, whereas pools for 150 colonies provide much greater power as shown by the diagonal dotted lines.