Selection and realized heritability for growth in the scallop,Euvola ziczac (L.)

Abstract

Specimens taken from natural populations of the scallop, Euvola ziczac (L.), were mass spawned in order to produce an initial stock of parents for a selection experiment. The purpose of the present study was to improve scallop shell growth and to calculate the degree of heritability of this characteristic. At one year of age, the top 10‰ of the stock (i.e. the larger scallops) were segregated to create the selected line. An equal number of mean-sized scallops was used to create the control line. In the second generation, after 294 days in culture, the heritability values of the scallops were calculated. Heritability estimates fluctuated between 0.47 and 0.54 depending on the character investigated, i.e. shell length or shell height. The selected line was 5.5‰ longer and 4.5‰ higher than the control line, and 7.3‰ longer and 9.4‰ higher than the parental line.