Effects of Morphological Traits on Body Mass of Paphia textile

Objective The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of shell morphological traits on the body mass of wild Paphia textile and provide references for artificial breeding of P. textile.

Method Four traits including shell length(SL), shell height(SH), shell width(SW) and body mass(BM) of 121 P. textile randomly chosen from Beihai, Guangxi Province were measured. The shell traits(SL, SH, SW) were used as independent variables and body(BM) was used as dependent variable for correlation, path, determination coefficients and multiple regression analysis.

Result The maximal coefficient of variance is in body mass, with extremely significant differences in correlation coefficients among the four quantitative traits of P. textile. The correlation coefficient between body mass and shell width is the maximal, with a value of 0.882, and the minimal correlation coefficient is between shell length and shell width, with a value of 0.596. The results of path analysis indicate that shell width has the greatest direct influence on body mass, and the path coefficient is 0.573.The indirect influence of shell height through shell width on body mass is the greatest, and the path coefficient is 0.423. The results of degree of determination analysis are consistent with those of the path analysis results. The optimal multiple regression equation of shell traits on body mass is established through stepwise multiple regression analysis: BM=-32.258+0.309SL+0.356SH+1.456SW(R²=0.874).

Conclusion When it comes to artificial breeding of P. textile with body mass as breeding objective, shell width should be considered first and the cooperative selection of shell height should be strengthened at the same time.