Growth performance of the clam, Meretrix meretrix, breeding- selection populations cultured in different conditions

• Published in: Acta oceanologica Sinica Vol. 32; no. 10; pp. 82 - 87
• Main Authors: Wang, Chao, Chai, Xueliang, Wang, Hongxia, Tang, Baojun, Liu, Baozhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.10.2013; Springer Nature B.V; Institute of 0ceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China%Zhejiang Mariculture Research Institute, Wenzhou 325005, China%East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, Shanghai 200090, China
• Subjects: Breeding; Clams; Climatology; Commercial farms; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Ecology; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental factors; Farms; Fisheries; Growth rate; Heterosis; Marine; Marine & Freshwater Sciences; Meretrix meretrix; Mollusks; Nurseries; Nursery grounds; Nursery ponds; Oceanography; Ponds; Populations; R&D; Reproductive behaviour; Research & development; Research centers; Seawater; Water temperature; 人群; 养殖场; 商业化; 培养; 文蛤; 杂种优势; 杂种群体; 生长性能; China; shell color patterns; mass selection; growth analysis; Meretrix meretrix
• ISSN: 0253-505X; 1869-1099
• DOI: 10.1007/s13131-013-0369-2

A breeding-selection program for the clam, Meretrix meretrix, was conducted since 2004. Two of the selec- tion populations were generated with the shell color pattern as an additional selection criterion and named as SP （purple stripes） population and SB （black dots） population. The third-generation SP and SB popula- tions （08G3SP and 08G3SB, respectively） were cultured at two commercial clam farms and a nursery pond and their shell lengths were compared. 08G3SB clams had significantly larger sizes than 08G3SP clams at commercial clam farms （p 〈 0.05）, yet 08G3SB individuals were significantly smaller than 08G3SP individ- uals at the nursery pond （p 〈 0.05）. Then, we examined the growth of the fourth-generation SP and SB populations （10G4SP and 10G4SB, respectively） at a commercial farm, and found that the shell lengths of the 10G4SB clams increased at a significantly higher growth rate than the 10G4SP clams （p 〈 0.05） from May to September, when the water temperature was between 24.2-27.5℃, while 10G4SB lost the growth advantage in the other months. These results indicated that SP and SB populations responded differently to environmental factors, so it is beneficial for the clam farmers to select a suitable population according to the culture environment. Furthermore, a diallel mating of the SB and SP populations was designed to investigate whether their hybrid population would show heterosis. However, the heterosis was not shown in this study, which might result from the slight genetic divergence between SB and SP populations.