Effectiveness of Selection in Producing Laboratory Stocks Genetically Uniform for Resistance to Dental Caries

2. Initial Stock Not in Genetic Equilibrium

¹ Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, and Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Thus the experimenter who is trying to produce a line of animals genetically uniform for resistance (or susceptibility) to dental caries may reasonably expect to secure such a type in time, if he is actually selecting for genetic differences instead of environmental imitations of them, regardless of whether the precision of his selection is high or low and regardless of whether the stock with which he starts is in genetic equilibrium. The less accurate the selection, the more generations will be required to approximate the homozygous state.