Abstract
Animal breeding theory leans heavily on the concepts and
methodology of quantitative genetics, which themselves were developed on the
assumption of many genes with small effects. At least until recently, there
was no cause to question the validity of this assumption with respect to
production traits in domestic livestock. The possible identification
of major genes influencing production was nevertheless kept under continual
review, and received some impetus from studies of polymorphisms in general
and of blood antigens in particular. However, there has been little room to
challenge the generality of a conclusion by Neimann-Sorenson and Robertson
(1961), in their case with specific reference to blood groups and dairy
production that such approaches had a low predictive value i.e. the influence
of specific loci on production could not readily be detected. However,
this does not mean that genes with major effects do not exist, and recent
work on the halothane and K-88 loci in pigs and on the Booroola gene in
sheep suggests the need to re-examine the possibilities.
Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Volume 6. Round tables, , 420–438, 1982
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