Suppose that a population of bees is being studied in terms of the rate at which

Question

Suppose that a population of bees is being studied in terms of the rate at which they obtain nectar (their "loading rate") while visiting a number of artificial "standard flowers". The standard flower is made of plastic that always contains the same amount of sugar water in the same concentration. Rate of nectar uptake (loading rate) is calculated from collected data. It is found that loading rates range for the whole population of bees from 3 microliters/second to 10 microL/s with a mean value of 5 microL/s (the data are not normally distributed). Suppose that a small group of bees within this population gather nectar at an average of 9.5 microL/s are allowed to breed and their offspring (the F1) visit times are scored and range from 4.2-11.3 microL/s with a mean of 8.7 microL/s. Calculate the selection differential and response to selection for this problem. What is the heritability of this trait, in the narrow sense?

Explanation / Answer

From the question, we have

Mean of the entire parental population = 9.5  µl/s

Mean of the reproductively successful individuals (the breeders) = 5 µl/s

Mean of the entire previous generation population = 8.7 µl/s        

Selection differential = Mean of the entire parental population - mean of the reproductively successful individuals

= 9.5 - 5.0

= 4.5 µl/s

Selection response = Mean of the entire previous generation population - mean of the offspring of the selected breeders

= 8.7 - 5.0

= 3.7 µl/s

Heretiability of the trait, h2 = selection response / selection differential

= 3.7 / 4.5

= 0.8

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