A scientist is researching oil content of seeds from a new plant species named R. tificial. She has determined the narrow sense heritability (h2) is 0.80. She mates plants with an average seed oil content of 32%. If the response to selection (R) was 16%, what is the estimated average oil content of seeds in the entire lab population? a. 12%
b. 20%
c. 32%
d. 44%
e. 50%

The correct answer is option a. 12%

Explanation:

Before answering the question, we need to know a few concepts.

Artificial selection is the selecting practice of a specific group of organisms in a population -that carry the traits of interest- to be the parents of the following generations.  

Parental individuals carrying phenotypic values of interest are selected from the whole population. These parents interbreed, and a new generation is produced.  

The selection differential, SD, is the difference between the mean value of the trait in the population (X₀) and the mean value of the parents, (Xs). So,  

SD = Xs - X₀  

Heritability in the strict sense, h², is the genetic component measure to which additive genetic variance contributes. The heritability might be used to determine how the population will respond to the selection done, R.  

h² = R/SD

The response to selection (R) refers to the metric value gained from the cross between the selected parents. R can be calculated by multiplying the heritability h², with the selection differential, SD.  

R = h²SD  

R also equals the difference between the new generation phenotypic value (X₁) and the original population phenotypic value (X₀),  

R = X₁ - X₀  

In the exposed example

To get the average oil content of seeds in the entire lab population, we should clear the following equation.

SD = Xs - X₀

But first, to get SD, we need to clear the equation R = h² SD

SD = R/h² = 0.16/0.8 = 0.2  

X₀ =  Xs - SD = 0.32 - 0.2 = 0.12    

The estimated average oil content of seeds in the entire lab population is 12%.

it would be heredity

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