INTRODUCTION TO QUANTITATIVE GENETICS Part - 1

PART- I
In the body of any organism there are two types of characters i.e. qualitative and quantitative .The characters which are governed by one or few genes are called oligogenic or qualitative character and those which are governed by numerous genes are called polygenic or quantitative character.


QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE CHARACTERS IN PLANT BREEDING

Quantitative characters are also known as metric characters. They are controlled by many genes. Such characters are agronomic in nature and have complex inheritance. They are easily influences by the environment. They are continuous in their phenotypic expression and they segregate in the second filial generation F2. Such characters cannot be grouped into distinct classes but they can be improved by recurrent selection leading to small but steady genetic gain in each selection cycle. They are responsive to high temperature and water and are physiological in nature. Examples are grain yield, total dry matter, plant height, protein and oil content in plants and general disease resistance.
            Qualitative characters are traits that show simple Mendelian inheritance. They are controlled by one or two pairs of genes. They are easily measured and their phenotype in the second filial generation F2 has close resemblance with their parents. E.g. flower or leaf colour, leaf shape, fruit shape, etc. It should be noted that selection is faster when dealing with qualitative traits compared with quantitative traits because unfavourable traits can be easily eliminated.
P= G+ E
V2p = V2g + V2e
Where P =Phenotype, G = genotype and E = environment, V2 = variance
HERITABILITY
Heritability is a measure of the genetic contribution to phenotypic variability
Types of heritability:
Broad-Sense Heritability: this expresses that proportion of variance due to the genetic component:
H2 = VG/VP
Where VG is the genetic variance and VP is the phenotypic variance
Narrow-Sense Heritability:
h2 =VA/VP
http://www.unaab.edu.ng
Because VP =VE + VG and VG = VA + VD, we obtain:
h2 = VA/ VE + VA + VD
Where VA =additive variance, VD =dominance variance,
Example
The mean and variance of corolla length in two highly inbred strains of Nicotiana and their progenies are shown in table below. One Parent (P1) has short corolla length and the other (P2) has a long length.
Strain Mean (mm) Variance
P1 40.47 3.12
P2 93.75 3.87
F1 (P1xP1) 63.90 4.47
F2 (F1xF1) 68.72 47.70
Calculate the heritability for corolla length
Solution
H2 = VG/VP, V2p = V2g + V2e
Because the strains breed true, they are assumed to be homogenous and the variance 3.12 and 3.87 is considered to be as a result of the environmental influences. The average = (3.12 + 3.87)/2 = 3.50 F1 is also genetically homogenous; hence it gives us an additional estimate of the environmental factors. By averaging over the two parents, we have:
(3.50 + 4.47)/2 =4.12
V2p = V2g + V2e
47.70 = V2g + 4.12
V2g =43.58
H2 = VG/VP,
=43.58/47.70
=0.91
=91%

This implies that about 91% of the variation in corolla length is due to genetic influences.


By== Mukesh Kumar

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