Genetic parameters and selection response for the harvest body weight of the giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) in a breeding program in China

A multi-trait selective breeding program of Macrobrachium rosenbergii was initiated in China in 2015. In this program, the M. rosenbergii resources were widely collected from four countries, the origin of the founders was verified with 16 microsatellites and the pedigree was reconstructed, and the optimum contribution selection was used to make the mating design. In this study, we evaluated the genetic parameters and selection response for the harvest body weight (HBW) of M. rosenbergii after being communally reared for 95–109 days. The data were collected from two generations that comprised 25,212 progenies from 150 sires and 198 dams. The residual maximum-likelihood methodology was employed to evaluate the variance components, by fitting an animal model. The accuracy of estimated breeding values increased by 0.38% after pedigree reconstruction using microsatellite markers. The estimated heritability (h(2)) for HBW was moderate (0.212 ± 0.049) and the common environmental coefficient (c(2)) was low (0.063 ± 0.017) when all the data were used for the analysis. Within generations, h(2) was moderate to high (0.198 ± 0.080 to 0.338 ± 0.049). c(2) could only be estimated in G(1), which was 0.055 ± 0.030. The average HBW of males was significantly larger than that of females (P < 0.01). h(2) estimated for female HBWs were higher than that for males within generations, while h(2) estimated for female HBWs were lower than that for males across generations. But they were not significantly different (P > 0.05). The genetic correlations between sexes were moderate to high within each generation (0.529 to 0.763). Two methods were used to estimate the realized response. One method was calculated from the differences between the least squares means of the selected population HBW and that of control population HBW, which was 14.01%. The other method was calculated from the differences between the EBVs of the selected population HBW and that of control population HBW, which was 11.52%. The predicted responses derived from two sets of genetic parameters acquired from within- and across- generation datasets were 11.68% and 10.67%, respectively. The present study provides valuable information for breeding programs of M. rosenbergii.