In a population of 100 inbred, genotypically identical rice plants, variance for grain yield is 4.67. What is the heritability for yield? Would you advise a rice breeder to improve yield in this strain of rice plants by selection?

In a line of cherry tomatoes, the average fruit weight is 16 g. A plant producing tomatoes with an average weight of 12 g is used in one self-fertilization cross to produce a line of smaller tomatoes, and a plant producing tomatoes of 24 g is used in a second cross to produce larger tomatoes. If narrow sense heritability (h²) for this trait is 0.80, what are the expected responses to selection (R) for fruit weight in the crosses?

Suppose you want to develop a population of Drosophila that would rapidly learn to avoid certain substances the flies could detect by smell. Based on the heritability estimate you obtained in Problem 16, do you think it would be worth doing this by artificial selection? Why or why not?

In studies of human MZ and DZ twin pairs of the same sex who are reared together, the following concordance values are identified for various traits. Based on the values shown, describe the relative importance of genes versus the influence of environmental factors for each trait.

In a population of tomato plants, mean fruit weight is 60 g and h² is 0.3. Predict the mean weight of the progeny if tomato plants whose fruit averaged 80 g were selected from the original population and interbred.

During a visit, your grandparents comment on how tall you are compared with them. You tell them that in your genetics class, you learned that height in humans has high heritability, although environmental factors also influence adult height. You correctly explain the meaning of heritability, and your grandfather asks, 'How can height be highly heritable and still be influenced by the environment?' What explanation do you give your grandfather?

In a cross between a strain of large guinea pigs and a strain of small guinea pigs, the F₁ are phenotypically uniform, with an average size about intermediate between that of the two parental strains. Among 1014 F₂ individuals, 3 are about the same size as the small parental strain and 5 are about the same size as the large parental strain. How many gene pairs are involved in the inheritance of size in these strains of guinea pigs?

New Zealand lamb breeders measure the following variance values for their herd.

Calculate the broad sense heritability (H²) and the narrow sense heritability (h²) for each trait in this lamb herd.

New Zealand lamb breeders measure the following variance values for their herd.

How would you characterize the potential response to selection (R) for each trait?