Size of Breeding Populations Required for Selection Programs

The minimum population size required for selection in order to reduce the effect of genetic drift to a particular level has been considered. The model of Nicholas was extended to include the measurement-error variance in the response variance. Situations where the sex ratios among scored and breeding individuals are unequal are also considered. When the duration of a selection experiment is relatively long, Nicholas' approximation (i.e., assuming that measurement error is negligible relative to drift) is useful in determining the minimum effective population size required. However, the measurement-error variance becomes an important source of variation in short-term (≤ 5 generations) selection experiments, and should not be ignored.