Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T19:46:53.726Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The interpretation of genotypic ratios in domestic animal populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

Alan Robertson
Affiliation:
Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh
Get access

Summary

If, from a population, samples of individuals are drawn with a small number of parents, it is shown that there will be on average an apparent excess of heterozygotes above the number calculated from the gene frequency in each sample. The apparent proportional excess is where M and F are the number of male and female parents. This is independent of the number of alleles at the locus concerned. The use of the usual significance tests will also be affected. If analyses are done within herds of domestic livestock, particularly cattle, the number of sires in use at any time is likely to lead to a bias of a size which is of biological importance. The conditions under which genotypic ratios can usefully be examined are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1965

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Kimura, M., & Crow, J. F., 1963. The measurement of effective population number. Evolution, 17: 279288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewontin, R. C., & Cockerham, C. Clark, 1959. The goodness-of-fit test for detecting natural selection in random mating populations. Evolution, 13: 561564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, C. C., 1959. Notes on relative fitness of genotypes that forms a geometric progression. Evolution, 13: 564567.Google Scholar
Robertson, A., & Asker, A. A., 1951. The genetic history and breed-structure of British Friesian cattle. Emp. J. exp. Agric. 19: 113130.Google Scholar