The comparision of response to selection, inbreeding and genetic variance in traditional and genomic selection methods

In order to evaluate the effects of genomic and traditional selection methods onlong term response to selection, genetic variance and inbreeding, a base population of 100 animals was randomly mated for 50 generations. The simulated genome size for each animal was 10 Morgan that was equally divided between 10 chromosomes. On each chromosome, 1000 SNP markers were evenly located. Two traits with the heritability of 0.5 and 0.1 were simulated for each animal and 200 QTL were randomly distributed over the genome for each trait. BLUP method was used for prediction of traditional breeding value as well as estimation of SNP effects. Genomic breeding values of the animals for each trait were sum of SNP effects for all loci. After generation 51, animals were selected based on traditional breeding values or genomic breeding values for 15 generations. The results of this study showed that for both traits the genomic selection method increased response to selection, butdecreased genetic variance relative to the traditional selection. Greater response to selection and reduction in genetic variance was for trait with higher heritability. A twofold increase in the inbreeding coefficient was observed for traditional selection relative to genomic selection after 15 generations of selection.