Additive, dominance genetic effects for growth-related traits in common carp, Cyprinus carpio L.

Additive, dominance genetic effects were analysed for body weight (BW) and seven morphometric traits from three variants of red common carp, Cyprinus carpio var. singuonensis, C. carpio var. wuyuanensis and C. carpio var. color, based on a diallel cross‐mating design by using the additive–dominance genetic model. The results indicated that at 8 months of age (juvenile stage), the traits of pre‐dorsal height (PDH), pre‐dorsal width (PDW) and caudal peduncle height (CPH) were mainly controlled by additive effects; the traits of BW, total length (TL), standard length (SL), head length (HL) and caudal peduncle length (CPL) were mainly controlled by dominance effects. The narrow‐sense heritabilities of all traits ranged from 0.000 to 0.556; however, the broad‐sense heritabilities ranged from 0.453 to 0.775. At 20 months of age (adult stage), the traits of TL, SL, PDH and CPL were mainly controlled by additive effects, whereas the traits of BW, PDW, HL and CPH were mainly controlled by dominance effects. The narrow‐sense heritabilities of all traits ranged from 0.000 to 0.710; the broad‐sense heritabilities ranged from 0.629 to 0.934. Through the genetic merit prediction from three parents, it was found that the additive and dominance effects of C. carpio var. color could increase the BW and body length in their progeny, but these two genetic effects of C. carpio var. singuonensis and C. carpio var. wuyuanensis could decrease BW in their progeny. The genetic effects of C. carpio var. wuyuanensis could reduce total length, SL and caudal peduncle length, but increase body height in their progeny.