Modeling the distribution of crossovers and interference with mice DNA data

Chiasma and crossover are two related biological processes of great importance in the understanding genetic variation. The study of these processes is straightforward in organisms where all products of meiosis are recovered and can be observed. This is not the case in mammals. Our understanding of these processes depends on our ability to model them. In this study I describe the biological processes that underline chiasma and crossover as well as the two main inference problems associated with these processes: i) in mammals we only recover one of the four products of meiosis and, ii) in general, we do not observe where the crossovers actually happen, but we find an interval containing type-2 censored information. NPML estimate was proposed and used in this work and used to compare chromosome length and chromosome expansion through the crosses.