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Heritability of juvenile growth traits in red drum ( Sciaenops ocellatus L.)
Author(s) -
Saillant Eric,
Ma Liang,
Wang Xiaoxue,
Gatlin Delbert M,
Gold John R
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
aquaculture research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2109
pISSN - 1355-557X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2109.2007.01737.x
Subject(s) - biology , heritability , juvenile , brood , sire , zoology , drum , offspring , fishery , restricted maximum likelihood , growth curve (statistics) , maximum likelihood , ecology , statistics , genetics , mathematics , mechanical engineering , pregnancy , engineering
Heritability of juvenile growth rate was estimated for red drum ( Sciaenops ocellatus ), an economically important sciaenid fish in the southern USA. Thirty‐eight families were generated via ‘natural’ spawning of multiple sets of five breeders (three dams × two sires) in individual brood tanks. Offspring were individually tagged with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags and mixed for grow‐out in replicate ‘common‐garden’ tanks. Juvenile growth was followed from 166.4±18.6 to 254.0±27.0 mm (total length). Offspring were assigned a posteriori to individual brood fish (dam and sire) based on genotypes at nuclear‐encoded microsatellites. Heritability ( h 2 ) of a thermal growth coefficient was estimated using an animal‐additive model and a restricted maximum‐likelihood algorithm. Estimates of h 2 were 0.33±0.08 and 0.31±0.08 for thermal growth coefficient based on length and weight respectively. These results indicate a significant genetic component in juvenile growth rate in red drum. Estimates of h 2 for condition coefficient ( K ) at various measurement dates averaged 0.38, suggesting a genetic component to shape in juvenile red drum.