How much energetic trade-offs limit selection? Insights from livestock and related laboratory model species.

ABSTRACT: Trade-offs between life history traits are expected to occur due to the limited amount of resources that organisms can obtain and share among biological functions, but are of least concern for selection responses in nutrient-rich or benign environments. In domestic animals, selection limits have not yet been reached despite strong selection for higher meat, milk or egg yields. Yet, negative genetic correlations between productivity traits and health or fertility traits have often been reported, supporting the view that trade-offs do occur in the context of nonlimiting resources. The importance of allocation mechanisms in limiting genetic changes can thus be questioned when animals are mostly constrained by their time to acquire and process energy rather than by feed availability. Selection

SUBMITTER: Douhard F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8674892 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature