Genetic selection is a major force shaping life on earth. In classical genetic theory, response to selection is the product of the strength of selection and the additive genetic variance in a trait. The additive genetic variance reflects a population's intrinsic potential to respond to selection. The ordinary additive genetic variance, however, ignores the social organization of life. With soci...

Immune defences are an important component of fitness. Yet susceptibility to pathogens is common, suggesting the presence of ecological and evolutionary limitations on immune defences. Here, we use structural equation modelling to quantify the direct effects of resource quality and selection history, and their indirect effects mediated via body condition prior to an immune challenge on encapsul...

Indirect jumps from tables are traditionally only generated by compilers as an intermediate code generation decision when translating multiway selection statements. However, making this decision during intermediate code generation poses problems. The research described in this paper resolves these problems by using several types of static analysis as a framework for a code improving transformat...

Disentangling individual selection from kin selection is one of the greatest challenges of evolutionary biology. Even solitary organisms that do not interact directly with conspecifics may interact indirectly with them through competition for resources. As a result, traits that appear to affect individual fitness alone can also modify the fitness of relatives nearby and thus may evolve partiall...

The current study was conducted to consider how pedigree and the gene-dropping analysis can use to monitor genetic diversity, and to recommend a breeding strategy for improving breast weight (BRW) in a population of Japanese quail. A total of 312 birds were divided equally into two lines. One line (S1) was selected for four-week body weight (BW) based on breeding value, and the other (S2) was s...

Selection strategies for the genetic improvement of reproductive performance of sheep in Australia are discussed in the context of current and emerging industry practice. The predicted rates of gain in reproductive rate are compared with varying amounts of pedigree and performance records of relatives. The paper also considers the merits of exploiting indirect as well as direct selection, inclu...

Reducing disease prevalence through selection for host resistance offers a desirable alternative to chemical treatment. Selection for host resistance has proven difficult, however, due to low heritability estimates. These low estimates may be caused by a failure to capture all the relevant genetic variance in disease resistance, as genetic analysis currently is not taylored to estimate genetic ...