Phenotypic
estimates and heritability values of Artemia franciscana
M.M. Shirdhankar, P.C. Thomas,
S.K.
Barve-2004
Aquaculture
Research, 35(1):
35-39
Abstract:
Artemia,
in all stages of its life cycle, is suitable food for most diversified
groups of aquatic animals. Although its size at different stages restricts
its use as a food for some groups of fish, this problem can be overcome
using selective breeding techniques. The formulation of any selective
breeding programme calls for a proper understanding of the genetic
architecture of the economically important traits of the population under
study. Thus, heritability for certain important life history and
reproductive traits was estimated in Artemia franciscana from the
Great Salt Lake, Utah. In the present study, the sexwise heritability values
for growth and reproduction traits were estimated using parent-offspring
regression. The phenotypic parameters for the same traits are also recorded.
The naupliar length was 487.0±2.0 and 490.6±1.8 µm for males and
females, respectively, whereas the heritability values for naupliar length
were 0.5851±0.2153 and 0.3766±0.1899 respectively. The length at 3 and 6
days of age were 1.87±0.03 and 4.10±0.08 mm, respectively, for males
whereas 1.87±0.03 and 4.30±0.08 mm, respectively, for females. The
heritability values for length at 3 and 6 days of age for males were 0.3272±0.3651
and 0.4965±0.2466, respectively, whereas the respective values for the
females were 0.1167±0.3841 and 0.0222±0.2971. The estimates of length at
first brood, pre-reproductive period and number of offspring in first brood
were 10.09±0.23 mm, 16.00±0.23 days and 53.57±1.37 days,
respectively, whereas the heritability values for respective traits were
0.0403±0.1078, 0.3234±0.2874 and 0.3404±0.2202.
(College of Fisheries, Shirgaon, Ratnagiri,
Maharashtra, India, E-mail: mangeshshirdhankar@yahoo.com)