You are studying a highly inbred strain of barley.After many generations of inbreeding,you now assume that the genetic variation is zero.Suppose that you raise many individuals of your barley strain in a field in southeastern Michigan and then measure their height after one month of growth.You find that the variance in their height is 4.0.The broad-sense heritability of this trait is 0.From this particular study you can conclude that:
A)genetics does not play a major role in determining the height of barley plants.
B)if you were to repeat the same experiment in Iowa,you would obtain a different broad-sense heritability.
C)if you were to repeat the same experiment in Iowa,you would obtain the same broad-sense heritability.
D)in barley plants,height is not inheritable.
E)the line of barley plants that you are studying is not inbred enough.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Given that the genetic variation is zero (due to inbreeding), the variance in height observed is solely due to environmental factors. Broad-sense heritability (H^2) is a measure of how much of the phenotypic variance in a population is due to genetic variance. If genetic variance is zero, H^2 is zero, indicating that all observed variance is environmental. This conclusion would remain the same regardless of the location (Michigan or Iowa) since the genetic makeup of the barley strain doesn't change with location.

You Are Studying a Highly Inbred Strain of Barley