Abstract
THE majority of the concepts of population genetics used in predicting possible progress in livestock breeding are derived from the known behaviour of single genes. An exception to this is the concept of the genetic correlation between two traits which is based on the statistical partitioning of their variances and covariance1. The genetic portion of these variances and covariance is then used to estimate a probable change in one trait when the second trait is selected for. Falconer2 has indicated the validity of this process for a particular case in that he obtained similar values for the genetic correlation between length of tail and body-weight in mice of six weeks of age from an experiment in which the response of each was measured when the other was selected for.
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References
Lerner, I. M., “Population Genetics and Animal Improvement” (Cambridge University Press, 1950).
Falconer, D. S., J. Heredity, 45, 42 (1954).
Mather, K., and Harrison, B. J., Heredity, 3, 1, 131 (1949).
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COCKREM, F. Selection for Relationships Opposite to those predicted by the Genetic Correlation between Two Traits in the House Mouse (Mus musculus). Nature 183, 342–343 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/183342a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/183342a0
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