Selection for fresh weight in Arabidopsis thaliana under two mating systems

Four races of Arabidopsis thaliana were used to produce two F 2 populations and these constituted the base populations of an artifical selection study. All plants were grown under aseptic culture conditions in a controlled environment and the character studied was fresh weight after 15 days' growth. For one section of the study, two selection intensities were applied to each F 2 population and the selected parents were randomly mated. In addition to the high selections a group of random selections were maintained as a control. In the second section of the study the procedure differed only in that mating was by self-fertilization.For one population the selection response was as expected for a character of low heritability. A regular response was also observed for the other population when mating was at random, but the results for selection with self-fertilization indicated the presence of dominance effects. The overall conclusion was that selection with random mating and selection with self-fertilization produced approximately equal genetic gains.