Mating system

These are two ways by which the animal breeder can change
the genetic properties of the population

Selection Mating system/Breeding system

choice of individuals to control of the way in which the
be bred as parents parents are mated

Genes that are not present in foundation animals can

sometimes be found in other breeds or population can be
introduced through crossing.

Mating is a process that determines which males

(selected) are bred to which females (selected).
 Classification of mating system
Primarily mating system can be classified as
a) Random mating
b) Non-random mating

Random Mating: (Panmixia or Panmixis)

The type of mating in which any individual of one sex has an
equal chance of mating with any other individual of the
opposite sex in the population.
 Non-random mating

• Artificial mating in which the mating is planned or controlled

by the breeder
Non-random mating

Based on Based on
phenotypic resemblance genotypic resemblance
(Genetic relationship)

Assortative mating
Inbreeding Outbreeding

Positive assortative Negative assortative

mating or like to like mating/Disassortative
mating mating or unlike mating
 Positive assortative mating or Like to like mating
• If mated pairs are of the same phenotype more often than
would occur by chance it is called as assortative mating.

• Increase the frequencies of homozygotes and reduce that of

heterozygotes. It results in subdividing the population into
groups
 Negative assortative mating or Disassortative mating or Unlike mating

• If mated pairs are of the same phenotype less often than

would occur by chance is called as disassortative mating.

• It is mating of individuals of unlike phenotype.

• Negative assortative mating tends to decrease variation and

increase phenotypic uniformity in the population.

• It leads to increase the heterozygotes and reduce

homozygotes in the population.
Suffolk x Columbia
 Based on genetic resemblance
Inbreeding:
 Mating of related animals.
 If choice of the mates is based on genetic relationship
between them, then the mating system is said to be
consanguineous or inbreeding.

Outbreeding:
 Mating of unrelated animals.
 When the relationship between individuals which are mated
together is less close than the average relationship within
the population, the mating system is referred as
outbreeding.
Inbreeding
 Inbreeding
• Inbreeding is defined as the mating between animals, which
are more closely related to each other than the average
relationship between all individuals of the population.

• Inbreeding is mating between animals related by ancestry.

• Two animals are said to be genetically related when they

have one or more ancestors in common in the first 4 to 6
generations of their pedigree.

It can be classified as
1. Close inbreeding
2. Line breeding
3. Strain (breeding) formation
 Close inbreeding
• Close inbreeding is a severe or strict form of inbreeding.
• The matings are made between close relatives i.e between
sibs or between parents and progeny.

• This type of mating is carried out to produce inbred lines

with relatively high degree of homozygosity.

• Example: Mating between sibs or between parents

& offspring i.e. sire x daughter or son x dam.

Methods of producing inbred line

• Full sib mating (Most commonly used)
• Back crossing the progeny to the younger parent.
• Half-sib mating (very much slower in reaching homozygosity)
 Line breeding
• Line breeding is milder form of inbreeding and the
relationship is not so close as it is found in close breeding.

• Line breeding is a form of inbreeding in which the

relationship of an individual or individuals is kept as close as
possible to an outstanding ancestor.
• The ancestor is usually a male because a male can produce
more number of progenies during its life time than a female.
The line breeding is taken in two ways:
1. Half-sib mating or cousins mating - Here the rate of
inbreeding is less than close inbreeding.
2. Mating of animals in such a way that their descendants are
mated to outstanding animal (sire) up to 3 to 4 generations

• In this method an attempt is made to concentrate the

inheritance of one ancestor or line of ancestor in the line
bred offspring.
• The primary purpose is not to increase the homozygosity
but to retain/ concentrate on a good proportion of genes/
traits of a particular outstanding ancestor (Sire/Dam) among
its descendants.
• Generally a sire is not mated to his own daughter and
matings are made between half-sibs or grand sire and grand-
daughter
 Strain formation
• This is the mildest form of inbreeding.
• When a population of individuals are allowed to breed
without entry of new animals for at least three to five
generations then it is termed as strain breeding.

• Since the population is closed from the entry of new

animals, homozygosity increases due to small population
size

• A breed can be subdivided into different strains based on

specific characteristics/ traits by the strain breeding.
 Genetic effects of inbreeding
1. It increases homozygosity at the expense of
heterozygosity.
2. Inbreeding changes the genetic structure of population
by changing the genotype frequency, without affecting
the gene frequency.
3. It fixes character in the population, whether or not the
effects are favourable or unfavourable.
4. Inbreeding brings many recessives to light as it
increases the frequency of both dominant and
recessive homozygotes.
5. Because of more pair of dominant homozygous genes,
they are more likely to be prepotent than non-inbred
6. It reduces genetic variability within inbred line but
leads to genetic differentiation between lines
 Phenotypic effects of inbreeding
1. Lethal / harmful deleterious recessive genes causing
hereditary abnormalities get uncovered which were hidden
in outbred herds (as heterozygotes).
Usually these genes being covered by their dominant alleles
in heterozygous form. When inbreeding occurs, the genes
appears as homozygous form and exhibit / express their
effects phenotypically.
2. Inbreeding leads to inbreeding depression
Inbreeding depression is the reduction in the mean
phenotypic value shown by characters connected with
reproductive capacity, vigour (viability), physiological
efficiency, e.g. fertility, number of services per conception,
embryonic death, litter size in pigs, reduction in milk yield
and growth rate.
• Performance in reproductive traits and viability traits
decrease @1% of mean for every 1% increase in inbreeding
• Cattle: Decreased birth weight of calves

• Poultry: Reduction in egg production. Inbreeding increase

chick mortality.
• Pigs: Inbreeding decrease litter size at birth, viability
between birth and weaning, post weaning growth rate.
3. Increases phenotypic uniformity among individuals
4. Reduces fitness
5. Decreased growth rate
6. Increased mortality
7. Reduced reproductive efficiency i.e. decreased vigour, delay
in puberty, reduction in gametogenesis
 Application
1. It is used to test sire for recessive alleles. Thus, helps to
eliminate undesirable genes.
2. Used to form distinct families within a breed. The selection
between families for traits of low h2 is more effective.
3. Used to develop inbred lines as seed stock which can be
crossed according to their combining ability
4. Gives knowledge of type of gene action affecting a trait
5. Increases prepotency which is the ability of an individual to
stamp its character on the progeny
6. The highly inbred lines of laboratory animals
(mice/rat/guinea pig etc.) are used in bioassay and other
research
7. The inbreeding followed by selection has helped to develop
several livestock breeds in the past.
Example: Long horn cattle, Shire horse, Leicester sheep, Merino,