A researcher wants to investigate how much the environment influences stalk diam
ID: 281736 • Letter: A
Question
A researcher wants to investigate how much the environment influences stalk diameter in a wild strain of sugarcane. She grows the wild strain plants, as well as the cultivar N17 (highly inbred) together in a field on her farm. The phenotypic variance for stalk diameter in the wild strain is 5.4 cm2, whilst the phenotypic variance for N17 is only 2.1 cm2. What are the genotypic variance and the broad sense heritability in the wild strain?
Can you please answer this question and explain in detail why certain values are used in the calculations?
Explanation / Answer
Broad sense heritability is measure of how much of the phenotypic variation (variance) observed in a population is due to genetic factors.
Vt = Vg + Ve
Ve = 2.1
so Vg = Vt – Ve = 5.4-2.1 = 3.3
H 2 = V g /V t = 3.3/5.4 = 0.61