A Simulation Study on the Effects of Founding Population Size and Number of Alleles Per Locus on the Observed Population Genetic Profile Implications to Broodstock Management.

Citation: Kamarudin, NJ, Wang, VCC, Tan, XT, Ramesh, A, Chew, SSM, Murthy, MV, Yablochkin, NV, Mathivanan, K, Ling, MHT. 2020. A Simulation Study on the Effects of Founding Population Size and Number of Alleles Per Locus on the Observed Population Genetic Profile: Implications to Broodstock Management. EC Veterinary Science 5(8): 176-180.

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Loss of genetic variability in small population, known as founder effect, is commonly seen in aquaculture, where broodstocks are not routinely supplemented from the wild, leading to detrimental effects. Yet, the relationship between founding population size and observed population genetic profile is not clear. Here, the effects of founding population size and number of alleles per locus on the observed population genetic profile across multiple generations were examined using simulation. Our results suggest that the number of alleles per locus (p-value = 1.2E-102) and generation counts (p-value < 1E-240) are significant factors in genetic drift but not founding population size (p-value = 0.12). This suggests that genetic drift occurs regardless of population sizes, which may have implications in broodstock management to constantly minimize the impact of genetic drift regardless of broodstock population.