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Artificial selection in populations by overlapping generations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2016

William G. Hill
William G. Hill*
Affiliation:
Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh
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Extract

In populations of species such as cattle and sheep which are being selected for commercially important quantitative traits like milk yield and growth rate, the breeder cannot avoid overlapping generations since the female reproductive rate is so low. There is a classical theory for predicting the rate of response to selection in continuing programmes in which the selection differentials and age structure of the population do not change (Rendel and Robertson, (1950)). In a new programme, however, these rates of response are approached only asymptotically and may not be a useful approximation for several years. Recurrence relations have been developed by several authors to enable predictions of short term responses, but these can be simplified with Leslie's (1945) matrix formulation. Some basic principles will be given here; for details see Hill (1974).

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Applied Probability , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 11 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1975 

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References

Goodman, L. A. (1969) The analysis of population growth when the birth and death rates depend upon several factors. Biometrics 25, 659–691.Google Scholar
Hill, W. G. (1974) Prediction and evaluation of response to selection with overlapping generations. Anim. Prod. 18, 117–139.Google Scholar
Leslie, P. H. (1945) On the use of matrices in certain population mathematics. Biometrika 33, 213–245.Google Scholar
Rendel, J. M. and Robertson, A. (1950) Estimation of genetic gain in milk yield by selection in a closed herd of dairy cattle. J. Genetics 50, 1–8.Google Scholar