1. In Colorado potato beetles, wing length is a polygenic trait. A large populat
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Question
1. In Colorado potato beetles, wing length is a polygenic trait. A large population in central Idaho has a mean wing length of 12mm. A severe drought hits the state. A pest manager resurveys the same population and finds that mean wing length of the surviving beetles is now 8mm. The following spring, the next generation (offspring of the survivors), has a mean wing length of 10mm.
What is the narrow-sense heritability (h2) of wing length in this population? (hint: figure out the selection differential and the response to selection from the data, then calculate heritability). Show your work. (2 pts)
Explanation / Answer
Answer-
Selection differential is the difference between the base population mean and the mean of selected parents.
In our question the base population mean is the population with mean wing length of 12mm. And the selected parents are the surviving beetles which have mean wings length 8 mm
Base population mean wings length (T)= 12 mm
Selected parents mean wings length (T*)= 8 mm
Selection differential S =T - T*
Base population mean wings length - selected parents mean wings length
S = 12mm - 8 Mm
S= 4 mm
Response to selection R is how much gain you make when matting the selected parents.
Response selection is the difference between mean phenotype of the offspring and the mean phenotype of the original parents before selection.
Mean phenotype of the offspring is the mean wings length of the offspring of survivor (T')= 10 mm
mean phenotype of the original parents is equals to T
R= T' -T
R= 10 - 12
R = 2
nerrow sensense heritability is defined as proportion of the trait variance which that is due to the additive genetic factors.
It is repeated by h 2 ( 2 in power)
h2 = R/s
h2=2/4
h2 = 0.5
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