Suppose the length of maize ears has narrow sense heritability (h...

Question

Suppose the length of maize ears has narrow sense heritability (h²) of 0.70. A population produces ears that have an average length of 28 cm, and from this population a breeder selects a plant producing 34-cm ears to cross by self-fertilization. Predict the selection differential (S) and the response to selection (R) for this cross.

Accepted Answer

Hi, everyone. Let's take a look at this practice problem together. All of the following factors can influence the heritability of a trait except the answer options are a genetic drift. B mutation rate, C gene environment interaction and D the mean of the trait in a population. Now, heritability can be a somewhat confusing term. So let's go ahead and review the complete definition together. Heritability is a measure of the degree to which genetic variations contribute to phenotypic variations. Now, it's important to note that heritability is can only be applied to specific traits in specific environments for specific populations. So all the factors that can influence the heritability of a trait should be factors related to genetic variations or differences in some way. So let's go ahead and take a look at those answer options again. Now genetic drift recall that the definition is the change in frequency of a gene variant within a population due to random chance. Now, a genetic drift could cause a gene variant to completely disappear and would therefore affect overall genetic variations. Genetic drift can influence heritability. So we can eliminate option A. Now, option B, the mutation rate is the frequency of new mutations in a gene over time. And as we know this can affect genetic variations. So option B can be eliminated as the correct answer. Then we have gene environment interaction. And this is when the environment can affect the genetic and phenotypic variations. Thus, it can affect or influence irritability. So option C can also be eliminated. That means the correct answer is option D, the mean of the trade in a population is used to calculate a term which is called the selection differential. It is not a factor that can influence the heritability of a trait. So again, the correct answer is option D mean of the trait in a population. All right, everyone. I hope you found this helpful and I'll see you soon for the next practice problem.

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