Selection response and efficiency of doubled-haploid recurrent selection in a cross-fertilized species

Summary

Computer simulation was used to compare the simulated response to doubled-haploid (DH) mass selection with the response predicted by mathematical formulae. The efficiency of DH versus diploid mass selection in a cross-fertilized species was also studied by means of theoretical consideration and computer simulation. Simulated gain was in agreement with the predicted gain in the DH population under both additive and complete dominance models. The simulated variance of response to DH mass selection was close to the predicted variance at both the 5% and 25% selection regimes under additive and complete dominance models. The efficiency of DH over diploid mass selection was shown to be dependent upon the allelic frequency, the degree of dominance, and the amount of environmental variance. In theory the efficiency can range from zero to infinity, but in reality it should be greater than one. The efficiency ranges from √2 to 2 in the absence of dominance; it can be greater than two only in the presence of dominance and a small environmental variance. The variance of response to DH mass selection can be smaller than or up to twice as large as the variance of response to diploid mass selection. Computer simulation results agreed with the predicted efficiency of DH mass selection and with the predicted variance-of-response ratio of DH mass selection to diploid mass selection.