Statistical genetic considerations for maintaining germ plasm collections

• Published in: Theoretical and applied genetics Vol. 86; no. 6; p. 673
• Main Authors: Crossa, J. (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico (Mexico). Maize and Wheat Improvement), Hernandez, C.M, Bretting, P, Eberhart, S.A, Taba, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany 01.07.1993
• Subjects: Allele frequency; ANALISIS ESTADISTICO; ANALYSE STATISTIQUE; CONSERVACION DEL GERMOPLASMA; CONSERVATION DU MATERIEL GENETIQUE; Core subsets; ECHANTILLONNAGE; GENE; GENES; Genetic resources conservation; MUESTREO; Probability models; RECURSOS GENETICOS; RESSOURCE GENETIQUE; Sample size
• ISSN: 0040-5752; 1432-2242
• DOI: 10.1007/BF00222655

One objective of the regeneration of genetic populations is to maintain at least one copy of each allele present in the original population. Genetic diversity within populations depends on the number and frequency of alleles across all loci. The objectives of this study on outbreeding crops are: (1) to use probability models to determine optimal sample sizes for the regeneration for a number of alleles at independent loci; and (2) to examine theoretical considerations in choosing core subsets of a collection. Supposing that k-1 alleles occur at an identical low frequency of p(0) and that the k(th) allele occurs at a frequency of 1-[(k-1)p(0)], for loci with two, three, or four alleles, each with a p(0) of 0.05, 89-110 additional individuals are required if at least one allele at each of 10 loci is to be retained with a 90 % probability; if 100 loci are involved, 134-155 individuals are required. For two, three, or four alleles, when p(0) is 0.03 at each of 10 loci, the sample size required to include at least one of the alleles from each class in each locus is 150-186 individuals; if 100 loci are involved, 75 additional individuals are required. Sample sizes of 160-210 plants are required to capture alleles at frequencies of 0.05 or higher in each of 150 loci, with a 90-95 % probability. For rare alleles widespread throughout the collection, most alleles with frequencies of 0.03 and 0.05 per locus will be included in a core subset of 25-100 accessions.