Hereditary Effects Of Phenotypic Characters And Correlation With Microsatellite Markers Of The Pearl Oyster, Pinctada Fucata Martensii

Pinctada fucata martensii plays an important role in seawater pearl industry in China. However, seawater pearl production has been decreased seriously in China. One of major reasons is lack of superior specimen. Accordingly, we analyzed heritability of seven economic traits, including shell height, shell width, shell length, total weight, left shell weight, right shell weight and thickness of shell nacreous layer. Correlations between seven economic traits and six microsatellite markers were also calculated by SPSS. The results of this study are as follows:Firstly, there were significantly different among the seven traits except shell length in two samplings. Families named WB1and RR2had the largest shell height among the five families in the first and second samplings respectively.Secondly, variance components of additive effect in shell width, total weight, color a, white pearl and gold pearl were significant in both samplings. While, variance components of additive effect in shell height and thickness of shell nacreous layer wasn’t significant (P <0.05). Variance components of dominance effects in shell height, total weight and thickness of shell nacreous layer were significant. However, variance components of dominance effects in shell width, color a, white pearl and gold pearl weren’t significant. Variance components of dominance effects and additive effects in color L and color b weren’t significant. Additive effects variance components rate of shell height, shell width, color L, color a, color b, white pearl, gold pearl and thickness of shell nacreous layer were significant (P<0.05). Dominance effect variance components rate of total weight was significant (P<0.01), but no significant was found in shell height, shell width, color L color a, color b, white pearl, gold pearl and thickness of shell nacreous layer (P<0.01). The biggest estimate values of dominance effect variance components and additive effect variance components were shell height and total weight respectively. Additive effect variance components rate of shell height was17.742%, and dominance effect variance components rate of total weight was5.04%.Thirdly, narrow-sense heritability from big to small is total weight, shell width, white pearl, color L, color b, gold pearl, shell height and thickness of shell nacreous layer. The order of broad-sense heritability is white pearl> shell width> total weight> gold pearl> color L> color a> thickness of shell nacreous layer> color b> shell height.Fourthly, six microsatellite markers were used to genotype480pearl oysters. Associations between microsatellite and traits were analyzed by SPSS software. PM6and4PM50were positively correlated with thickness of shell nacreous layer, while,2PM206 was negatively correlated with thickness of shell nacreous layer.3PM10marker was negatively associated with shell height, shell length, left shell weight and thickness of shell nacreous layer.4PM34marker was negatively and significantly correlated with shell height, shell length, total weight and left shell weight. However, there was no correlation between4PM28marker and shell phenotypic traits.