Realized heritability and response to selection for shell height in the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata (Gould)

Abstract

The common pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata (Gould), is the most important species that is cultured for production of marine pearls in China. Heavy mortality and the decline of pearl quality have resulted in a breeding programme being established in recent years. In this study, we conducted selective breeding for the second generation of pearl oyster P. fucata (JCS-2) by mass selection for shell height (SH) with a selection intensity of 1.614, and analysed the growth of the selected line (JCS-2) and the non-selected control line (JCC) during a 1-year grow-out period. The results show that the selected line grew faster than the control one in the SH and total weight (TW) (P < 0.05), and there were higher proportion of larger sized oysters. Coefficient of variation for SH of JCS-2 was smaller than that of JCC. The current genetic gains and realized heritability for JCS-2 averaged 16.03 +/- 4.79% and 0.713 +/- 0.208 at 3-15 months of age respectively. The findings indicated the selection response to faster growth for SH is markedly effective in the second generation, and there was a high correlated response of TW when selecting for SH.