A note on the effect of different selection criteria on carcass composition in mice

Abstract

Selection can produce lines of animals which diverge widely for a range of characters, so that the genetic relations among these and other traits can be investigated. Results are reported on chemical analysis of whole body composition of 10-week-old mice from replicated lines selected high or low for either amount of lean, proportion of fat, or food intake corrected for body weight. There were over two-fold differences in proportion of fat in lines so selected for fat, whereas those selected for total lean showed little difference in composition. Lines selected for high food intake were no fatter than those selected for low food intake. It is confirmed that dry matter proportion is an accurate predictor of fat proportion.