Markers typed in genome-wide analysis identify regions showing deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

Background Deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) are commonly thought of as indicating genotyping errors, population stratification or some other artefact. However they could also arise through important biological mechanisms. In particular, genetic variants having a recessive effect on the successful fertilisation and/or development of an embryo might be manifest through such deviations in an unselected sample of "control" subjects.