Estimates of heritability based on additive-dominance genetic analysis model in red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii

Abstract Heritability has been proven as an effective means for assessing the genetic variation harbored in populations of aquaculture species. In order to make an overall genetic evaluation, heritabilities of twelve traits in red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii (5 months old), including growth, body dimension and processing traits, were estimated in this study. The estimation was based on the additive-dominance genetic analysis model using the incomplete diallel cross between three geographic populations of the species under two rearing environments. Results indicated that all heritabilities for mature females ( n  = 1312) and males ( n  = 1109) were low to medium in magnitude ( P P. clarkii .