ESTIMATES OF GENETIC-PARAMETERS RELATED TO PROTEASE PRODUCTION BY METARHIZIUM-ANISOPLIAE

Proteolytic activities are given against elastin and casein for the culture filtrate from 16 Metarhirium anisopliae strains grown in liquid medium containing casein as the only carbon and nitrogen source. The objectives were to estimate parameters such as genetic variance among strains, heritability, and expected gain from selection, as well as correlations between the traits assessed and the efficiency of the use of indirect selection in genetic improvement programs for the species. All characters showed the existence of wide genotypic variability, which can be exploited in breeding. The high heritabilities obtained indicate that substantial gains can be expected in phenotypic selection followed by clonal reproduction. The correlation coefficients and the estimated gains by indirect selection showed that large gains in elastolytic activity can be obtained by selecting strains with high caseinolytic activity. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.