Estimates of heritability and genetic correlations for growth traits in Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis.

[Objective] The aim was to estimate the heritability and genetic correlations of growth traits of Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis so as to provide basis and technical parameters for the breeding and selecting of Chinese shrimp.[Method] 51 full-sib families(including 35 half-sib families)of the Chinese shrimp F.chinensis were obtained by artificial insemination.Four growth traits of these families were measured,including body length,cephalothorax length,abdorminal segment length and body weight.According to quantitative genetics theory,the heritability of each growth trait,genetic and phenotypic correlation among these traits was statistically studied.[Result] The heritability was 0.36-0.51 for body length,0.14-0.24 for cephalothorax length,0.25-0.50 for abdominal segment length,and 0.04-0.29 for body weight.High and positive genetic correlations were obtained among growth traits.The genetic correlation between body weight and abdominal segment length was the highest(0.92),followed by body length and abdominal segment length(0.91),body length and body weight(0.88),body weight and cephalothorax length(0.87),abdominal segment length and cephalothorax length(0.86),while the genetic correlation between body length and cephalothorax length was the lowest(0.83).[Conclusion] The phenotypic correlation of body length,cephalothorax length,abdorminal segment length and body weight of Chinese shrimp F.chinensis were from 0.80 to 0.90 with extremely significant difference(P0.01)among the four growth traits by t-test.