Inbreeding depression traits in Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai by factorial mating experiments

'Inbreeding depression' may be an avoidable phenomenon for abalone culture. However, only a few studies have been carried out on inbreeding depression. In the present study, using six families produced in 1994, a factorial mating system including inbreeding and outbreeding was constructed in order to demonstrate inbreeding depression traits of the Pacific abalone. In total, 24 inbreeding and 21 outbreeding crosses were produced during three years (1999-2001) and these offspring were reared for approximately one year. Significant differences in fertilization rate and growth were not observed between inbreeding and outbreeding crosses. However, the deformity rate of veliger larvae was always higher in inbreeding crosses than that of outbreeding crosses in all experiments. Moreover, a significantly high deformity rate was observed in some full-sib families of inbreeding. Alternatively, the survival rates of inbreeding crosses were much lower than for outbreeding crosses after about 4 months and one year in two rearing localities. These results indicate that inbreeding depression is observed in the traits of deformity rate and survival, but not in fertilization rate nor growth in the first generation of a full-sib family of the Pacific abalone.