ESTIMATES OF HERITABILITY COEFFICIENTS IN FEMALE RHESUS MACAQUES

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Introduction: We have expanded our study to determine heritability coefficients of a number of reproductive parameters of captive female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) to include phenotypic and genetic correlations. Methods: The data used to estimate heritability coefficients and phenotypic correlations contained 7,829 births, 1,898 females and 1,227 grand dams. Infants were born from 1982 through 2007. The MTDFREML animal model program was used to estimate heritability. Because no male parents were identified, the numerator relationship matrix contained all females involving maternal half-sib and daughter-dam relationships. Reproductive traits included female age at the birth of the first, second and last infant, age at death, inter-birth intervals, number of infants born per female and infant survival. Results/Discussion: Heritability estimates were generally small, ranging from 0.000 ¿ 0.072 for postpartum birth interval following the birth of the first infant to 0.325 ¿ 0.143 for a female's age at death. Estimates for heritability for female longevity traits and for productivity were moderate in size and larger than for most reproductive traits. Phenotypic correlations varied from near zero to 0.900 (P 0.01) between number of infants born and dam age at death. Genetic correlations were small with large standard errors. The heritability estimates reported here appear reasonable and tend to be similar to those for reproductive traits in other species.