> Do you feel that this purging of "bad alleles" necessarily relates to
> survival in conditions similar to their natural habitat. I guess that can
> only be deyermined for each species by trial and error.
It depends. To get rid of bad alleles one usually elimates other allelic
variation as well. Whether this is of importance to the species in
question is another matter. Usually, what exists in the wild is probably
a good mix of alleles that the species has obviously been able to survive
with. It's probably best not to try and change that for conservation
purposes but there are some strategies that may allow one to do this
without losing the good variation but it is complicated and very
hypothetical/theoretical.
> I am just thinking of the RF Blue-eyes and the rather low success rate that
> seems to be evident in maintaining high fertility on-going vigorous strains
> in captivity.
Is it genetic or environmental? :-) It's a hard question to answer
seeing we have no genetic information at all.
Ooroo
Peter Unmack