The Journal of Heredity 1978:69(2):71-76
© 1978 The American Genetic Association 69:71-76
research-article |
Genotype-environment interaction effects on growth and development in Tribolium castaneum
The authors are, respectively, assistant professor, Department of Animal Science, University of Ife, Ife-Ife, Nigeria; and associate professor of animal science, and principal investigator, Fisheries Biology Research Facility, Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Abstract
The response of three lines of Tribolium to a good (yeast-supplemented) and a poor (yeast-free) diet indicated that large, fast-growing lines are more susceptible to poor environmental conditions than small slow-growing stocks. The F1 progeny of a cross between females of the large line and males of the small line were superior to the parental average for 13-day larval weight regardless of diet and had a more rapid developmental time, particularly on the poor diet. The latter diet extended the time to pupation of the large line by 5 days compared to only 1 day for the F1 and 0.6 days for the small line. Significant interactions were also observed between diet and both sires and dams for larval weight and between diet and dams for rate of development and pupal weight of female progeny. The findings support the notion that general-purpose stocks should be developed for production systems when environmental changes are not predictable but special-purpose stocks would hold an advantage when the environmental changes are predictable.