Mass selection for small-sized cysts in Artemia franciscana produced in Vinh Chau salt ponds, Vietnam

Unidirectional mass truncation selection for small-sized cysts was carried out on brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana Kellogg 1906), Vinh Chau strain, Vietnam, through cyst sieving and then culturing the selected individuals (<5% of the population) under field and laboratory conditions over two successive generations (F-1 and F-2). The results showed that at both culture scales, the cyst size of the selected line was smaller (P < 0.05) compared with the control (non-selected) line, illustrating that there was a response to selection. The cyst size decreased about 3% per generation and the accumulated gain on the target trait was in the range 5.82-6.07% at the end of the selection process compared with the base population. The realized heritability estimation (h(2)) for cyst size was 0.23 +/- 0.06 and 0.74 +/- 0.19 in the field trials and 0.34 and 0.51 in the laboratory test for the F-1 and F-2 generation respectively. The variations found between the respective trials may be explained as the result of environmental interaction with the selection process, but the results show that a selection program for small-sized cysts in Artemia by mass selection is possible.

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