Heterosis and combining ability:a diallel cross of three geographically isolated populations of Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai Ino

We conducted a complete diallel cross among three geographically isolated populations of Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai Ino to determine the heterosis and the combining ability of growth traits at the spat stage.The three populations were collected from Qingdao(Q) and Dalian(D) in China,and Miyagi(M) in Japan.We measured the shell length,shell width,and total weight.The magnitude of the general combining ability(GCA) variance was more pronounced than the specific combining ability(SCA) variance,which is evidenced by both the ratio of the genetic component in total variation and the GCA/SCA values.The component variances of GCA and SCA were significant for all three traits(P<0.05),indicating the importance of additive and non-additive genetic effects in determining the expression of these traits.The reciprocal maternal effects(RE) were also significant for these traits(P<0.05).Our results suggest that population D was the best general combiner in breeding programs to improve growth traits.The DM cross had the highest heterosis values for all three traits.

Adaptability Analysis of Hybrid Castor Based on AMMI Model

[Objective] The paper analyzed production adaptability and stability of 4 hybrids of castor,so as to explore the application method of AMMI model in variety evaluation.[Method] AMMI model and biplot were used to carry out stability analysis on 4 castor combinations in multi-point test during 2008 and 2009,and further evaluate the stability and adaptability of various tested combinations.[Result] AMMI model analysis showed that the singular values IPCA1 and IPCA2 in principal component axis of interaction totally explained 92.24% of the interaction variance.AMMI model not only maximizes the reflection on variation of interaction,but also can accurately analyze the adaptability and yield stability of varieties.[Conclusion] AMMI model integrates variance analysis and principal component analysis together,which improves accuracy compared with the traditional method.Even the adaptability of female line without fertility could be indirectly evaluated through the identification on the genotype and environment interaction effects in F1 generation.

Assessment of parental contribution and effective population size from a 3×3 diallel cross of clam Meretrix meretrix

Unbalanced parental contribution and small effective population size （Ne） are common issues during the artificial breeding of marine bivalves. The impact of hatchery-spawning practices on parental contribution, effective population size, the Ne/Nratio, and genetic diversity are largely unknown. To address this, we conducted a parentage analysis on a complete 3×3 diallel cross of clam Meretrix meretrix using eight microsatellite markers. The genetic diversity of the parents was higher than that of their respective offspring in most crosses （8/9）. Sires or dams from the same family contributed unequally to the pool of offspring from a particular cross, and the same parent clam exhibited large variation in parental contribution among different crosses. The variance in male contribution was higher than that of the female contribution in most crosses, suggesting that male contribution was more skewed than for females. The No/N ratio for nine crosses ranged from 0.58 to 0.86. There was no linear relationship between the sex ratio and the Ne/Nratio （P〉0.05）. Moreover, a sex ratio closer to one-to-one does not necessarily mean a larger effective population size. A solution to small effective population size in commercial breeding programs is increasing broodstoek numbers and attempting to maintain a balanced sex ratio.