Estimation of genetic parameters for growth trait of turbot using Bayesian and REML approaches

Bayesian and restricted maximum likelihood (REML) approaches were used to estimate the genetic parameters in a cultured turbot Scophthalmus maximus stock. The data set consisted of harvest body weight from 2 462 progenies (17 months old) from 28 families that were produced through artificial insemination using 39 parent fish. An animal model was applied to partition each weight value into a fixed effect, an additive genetic effect, and a residual effect. The average body weight of each family, which was measured at 110 days post-hatching, was considered as a covariate. For Bayesian analysis, heritability and breeding values were estimated using both the posterior mean and mode from the joint posterior conditional distribution. The results revealed that for additive genetic variance, the posterior mean estimate (σ a 2 =9 320) was highest but with the smallest residual variance, REML estimates (σ a 2 =8 088) came second and the posterior mode estimate (σ a 2 =7 849) was lowest. The corresponding three heritability estimates followed the same trend as additive genetic variance and they were all high. The Pearson correlations between each pair of the three estimates of breeding values were all high, particularly that between the posterior mean and REML estimates (0.996 9). These results reveal that the differences between Bayesian and REML methods in terms of estimation of heritability and breeding values were small. This study provides another feasible method of genetic parameter estimation in selective breeding programs of turbot.