Estimation of genetic parameters and its breeding progress for body mass and body length of Cyprinus carpio var. Quanzhounensis

In order to improve the growth rate of the cultured population of Cyprinus carpio var. Quanzhounensis in Quanzhou, two generations of breeding were carried out by family breeding method. The body mass and body length indexes of 3 699 individuals in 121 families of G₀, G₁ and G₂ generations of C. carpio were measured. The heritability, phenotypic correlation and genetic correlation of body mass and body length traits were estimated by mixed linear model. The selection progress of G₀−G₂ generations was evaluated by the method of breeding value and least square value estimation based on target traits. The results show that the coefficient of variation of body mass and body length was 0.50−0.72 and 0.18−0.22 respectively. The heritability estimates were 0.132 (P<0.01) and 0.122, respectively (P<0.01). The genetic correlation and phenotypic correlation were 0.921 (P<0.01) and 0.995 (P<0.01), respectively. The value of selective reaction in body mass estimated by breeding value based on target traits and least square estimation was 12.82% and 15.45%, respectively, while 2.76% and 6.60% in body length, respectively, which indicates that the evenness of body mass was low, not conductive to breeding production, but had high breeding and improvement potential. In general, this population ofC. carpio var. Quanzhounensis obtained effective genetic progress after two successive generations by the family breeding, but with a modest progress. In is suggested that molecular-assisted selection (MAS) and marker-assisted large-scale mixed families' selection should be adopted in the future breeding so as to improve the breeding efficiency.