Summary
Inbreeding was established by brother-sister matings and it was carried out for seven generations in the Consejo population of Tribolium castaneum. From 105 inbred lines at the start, 53 lines reached the end of the experiment,. Losses of lines were independent of the level of inbreeding.
The trait studied was 4-day egg laying of virgin females. It has been shown that this trait did not present either inbreeding depression or hybrid vigour. The phenotypic variance and its between- and within-line components also behaved as expected under the additive model as inbreeding progressed. Estimation of genetic parameters in the base population confirmed that egg laying of virgin females is an essentially additive trait.
Other traits—2-day egg laying of fecundated females, precocity and percentage viability—showed a smaller heritability than egg laying of virgin females and considerable inbreeding depression. No connection was found between virgin female egg laying and percentage viability.
The suggestion is made that egg laying of virgin females in the Consejo population can be considered a peripheral trait with respect to fitness.
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López-Fanjul, C., Jódar, B. The genetic properties of egg laying of virgin females of Tribolium castaneum. Heredity 39, 251–258 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1977.65
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1977.65
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