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Utilisation and conservation of farm animal genetic resources 55
Chapter 3. What is genetic diversity?
John Woolliams
1,2
and Miguel Toro
3 1
Roslin Institute, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS, United Kingdom
2
Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Science, Box 1432, Ås, Norway
3
Department of Animal Breeding, National Agriculture and Food Research Institute, Carretera La Coruna km7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Questions that will be answered in this chapter: What is meant by diversity?
In what ways can diversity be quantiied? To what extent are diferent measures of genetic diversity describing the same
phenomenon? How can we measure change in genetic diversity?
Summary
his chapter surveys the diferent ways in which the diversity we observe within a species can be quantiied. It will consider: 1 how the diversity we observe in the population
of a species can be divided into diferences between breeds, or more generally sub- populations, and diferences within these breeds; 2 how diversity within breeds can
be described by examining the pedigrees of individuals, or examining the sequences of DNA carried by individuals; 3 how a number of diferent approaches have been used
to measure the genetic diversity; and 4 how many of these measures may be related to the concepts of inbreeding.