A chicken breeder has a population of chickens where the average number of eggs laid per hen per month is 34. The narrow-sense heritability is 0.75. With this information is it likely that a breeder could select for an increase in eggs per hen laid each month?

Floral traits in plants often play key roles in diversification, in that slight modifications of those traits, if genetically determined, may quickly lead to reproductive restrictions and evolution. Insight into genetic involvement in flower formation is often acquired through selection experiments that expose realized heritability. Lendvai and Levin (2003) conducted a series of artificial selection experiments on flower size (diameter) in Phlox drummondii. Data from their selection experiments are presented in the following table in modified form and content.

Considering that differences in control values represent year-to-year differences in greenhouse conditions, calculate (in mm) the average response to selection over the three-year period. 

Floral traits in plants often play key roles in diversification, in that slight modifications of those traits, if genetically determined, may quickly lead to reproductive restrictions and evolution. Insight into genetic involvement in flower formation is often acquired through selection experiments that expose realized heritability. Lendvai and Levin (2003) conducted a series of artificial selection experiments on flower size (diameter) in Phlox drummondii. Data from their selection experiments are presented in the following table in modified form and content.

In terms of evolutionary potential, is a population with high heritability likely to be favored compared to one with a low realized heritability? 

Floral traits in plants often play key roles in diversification, in that slight modifications of those traits, if genetically determined, may quickly lead to reproductive restrictions and evolution. Insight into genetic involvement in flower formation is often acquired through selection experiments that expose realized heritability. Lendvai and Levin (2003) conducted a series of artificial selection experiments on flower size (diameter) in Phlox drummondii. Data from their selection experiments are presented in the following table in modified form and content.

In terms of evolutionary potential, is a population with high heritability likely to be favored compared to one with a low realized heritability? 

The narrow-sense heritability of the number of seeds per flower is 0.9. The mean of the population is 6.0 seeds per flower. A flower breeder crosses one flower with 7 seeds to another plant with 9 seeds. What is the expected number of seeds per flower in the offspring of this cross?

Heritability calculations were calculated for a variety of different traits. Which of the following traits would respond best to selection?

In this chapter, we focused on a mode of inheritance referred to as quantitative genetics, as well as many of the statistical parameters utilized to study quantitative traits. Along the way, we found opportunities to consider the methods and reasoning by which geneticists acquired much of their understanding of quantitative genetics. From the explanations given in the chapter, what answers would you propose to the following fundamental questions:

How do we know that monozygotic twins are not identical genotypically as adults?

Define the following: (a) polygenic, (b) additive alleles, (c) correlation, (d) monozygotic and dizygotic twins, (e) heritability, (f) QTL, and (g) continuous variation.