Glossary: H-Q
H I J K L M N O P Q A-G R-Z
HACIENDA: A large land holding that originated with the land grant system used by Spanish conquistadores. In size, comparable to an American plantation.
HALF SIBS: Half brothers and sisters.
HEMBRA: Female alpaca or animal.
HERITABILITY: A measure of the strength of the relationship between performance (phenotypic values) and breeding values for a trait in a population. Heritability in the broad sense.
HOMOLOGUE: One of a pair of chromosomes having corresponding loci.
HETEROZYGOUS: A one-locus genotype containing different alleles which express themselves in different ways.
HISTOGRAM: (1) The most common graphical presentation of quantitative data. The variable of interest, such as fiber diameter measured in microns, is placed on the horizontal axis and the frequency values, such as the percentage of fibers per micron, are placed on the vertical axis. (2) A micron test report that includes administrative information provided by the identification sent in with the individual sample. The histogram on such a report depicts the measurement of 2000 fibers in scale.
HOMOZYGOUS: A one-locus genotype containing identical alleles which express themselves in identical fashion.
HUACAYA: A breed of alpaca characterized by a well-crimped fleece that grows perpendicular to the skin.
HUARIZO: A crossbred animal. A term most often used to describe a llama-alpaca cross. Characterized by weak, medulated fiber and poor breed type.
HYBRID: An individual that is a combination of species, breeds within species, or lines within breeds.
HYBRID VIGOR: An increase in the performance of hybrids over that of purebreds, most noticeably in traits such as fertility and survivability.
IDENTICAL BY DESCENT: Two genes that are copies of a single ancestral gene.
INBREEDING: The mating of relatives.
INBREEDING CO-EFFICIENT: The measure of the level of inbreeding in an individual determined by (1) the probability that both genes of a pair in an individual are identical by descent, or (2) the probable proportion of an individual's loci containing genes that are identical by descent.
INBREEDING DEPRESSION: The reverse of hybrid vigor. A decrease in the performance of inbreds, most noticeably in traits such as fertility and survivability.
INDEPENDENT ASSORTMENT: The independent segregation of genes at different loci during gamete formation.
INDEPENDENT CULLING LEVELS: Minimum standards for traits undergoing multiple trait selection. Animals failing to meet any one standard are rejected regardless of merit in other traits.
INDEPENDENT GENE EFFECT: The effect of a gene independent of the effect of the other gene at the same locus (dominance) and the effects of genes at other loci (epistasis).
INDICATOR TRAIT: A trait that may or may not be important in itself, but is selected for as a way of improving some other genetically correlated trait.
INDIRECT SELECTION: Selection for one trait as a means of improving a genetically correlated trait.
KEMP: Guard hair or medulated fiber.
LAMA: Scientific name for the genus containing llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicunas; vicunas are sometimes separated into their own genus.
LINE: A group of related animals within a breed.
LINEBREEDING: The mating of individuals within a particular line. A mating system designed to maintain a substantial degree of relationship to a highly regarded ancestor or group of ancestors without causing high levels of inbreeding.
LINECROSSING: The mating of sires of one line or line combination to dams of another line or line combination.
LINKAGE: The occurrence of two or more loci of interest on the same chromosome.
LINKAGE ANALYSIS: A mathematical procedure that uses information from pedigreed populations to determine whether two loci are linked and, if so, how closely.
LOCUS/LOCI: The specific location of a gene on a chromosome.
MACHO: Male alpaca used in a breeding program.
MAJOR GENE: A gene that has a readily discernible effect on a trait.
MATERNAL HYBRID VIGOR: Hybrid vigor for the maternal component of a trait.
MATERNAL TRAIT: A trait especially important in breeding females. Examples include fertility, freedom from dystocia, milk production, maintenance efficiency, and mothering ability.
MATING: The process that determines which (selected) males are bred to which (selected) females.
MATING SYSTEM: A set of rules for mating.
MEAN: An arithmetic average.
MEDULLA: The hollow core found in coarse guard hair or kemp fibers, often found in the chest and underbelly portions of the fleece.
MEDULLATION: The degree to which a fleece contains medullated hair.
MEIOSIS: The process of germ cell formation.
MELANIN: Pigment in skin which determines skin and coat color. Melanin is found in two chemically different forms: eumelanin (which produces brown and black) and phaeomelanin (which produces yellow and red).
MELANOCYTES: An epidermal cell that produces melanin.
MENDELIAN SAMPLING: The random sampling of parental genes caused by segregation and independent assortment of genes during germ cell formation, and by random selection of gametes in the formation of the embryo.
MERIT: A praiseworthy quality.
MIGRATION: The movement of individuals into or out of a population.
MILLO: Quechua word for the color light fawn.
MODIFIER GENES: Genes that affect the expression of a primary gene or trait, often progressive in effect with a wide range of expression.
MULTICOLOR: An animal that incorporates more than one color in its coat.
MULTI-GENES: Genes that affect multicoloration in alpacas.
MULTIPLE ALLELES: More than two possible alleles at a locus.
MULTIPLE-SIRE PASTURE: A breeding pasture (or pen) containing more than one sire at a time.
MULTIPLE-TRAIT SELECTION: Selection for more than one trait.
MUTATION: Specifically point mutation. The process that alters DNA to create new alleles.
NATURAL SELECTION: Selection that occurs in nature independent of deliberate human control.
NATURAL SERVICE: Natural mating (as opposed to artificial insemination).
NEGATIVE ASSORTATIVE MATING: The mating of dissimilar individuals.
NO DOMINANCE: A form of dominance in which the expression of the heterozygote is exactly midway between the expressions of the homozygous genotypes.
NON-RANDOM MATING:Any mating system in which males are not randomly assigned to females.
NORMAL DISTRIBUTION: The statistical distribution that appears graphically as a symmetric, bell-shaped curve. In animal breeding, the values along the horizontal axis represent the levels of performance, breeding value, etc., that are being examined in a population; the height of the curve at any point represents the relative frequency of that value in the population.
NUCLEUS BREEDING SCHEME: A cooperative breeding program in which elite animals are concentrated in a nucleus herd or flock and superior germ plasm is then distributed among cooperative herds or flocks to the nucleus.
OUTBREEDING: Also outcrossing. The mating of unrelated individuals.
OUTCROSS BY PEDIGREE: The mating of individuals that are not related by pedigree; often called outcrossing.
OVERDOMINANCE: A form of dominance in which the expression of the heterozygote is outside the range defined by the expressions of the homozygous genotypes and most closely resembles the expression of the homozygous dominant genotype.
OWN PERFORMANCE DATA: Information on an individual's own phenotype.
PACO VICUNA: A crossbred or hybrid vicuna and alpaca.
PACCO: Quechua word for an Indian priest.
PARTIAL DOMINANCE: A form of dominance in which the expression of the heterozygote is intermediate to the expressions of the homozygous genotypes and more closely resembles the expression of the homozygous dominant genotype.
PATERNAL BREED: A breed that excels in paternal traits.
PATERNAL TRAIT: A trait especially important in market offspring. Examples include rate and efficiency of gain, meat quality, and carcass yield.
PATH METHOD: A method for calculating inbreeding and relationship co-efficients that simulates the paths taken by identical genes as they flow from ancestors to descendants.
PEDIGREE: A recorded list or genealogy of an alpaca's ancestors. A registered or recorded known line of descent.
PEDIGREE DATA: Information on the genotype or performance of ancestors and/or collateral relatives of an individual.
PEDIGREE RELATIONSHIP: Relationships between animals due to kinship, such as full-sibs, half-sibs, and parent-offspring relationships.
PHAEOMELANIN: See melanin.
PHENOTYPE: An observed category or measured level of performance for a trait in an individual.
PHENOTYPIC CORRELATION: The measure of the strength (consistency, reliability) of the relationship between performance in one trait and performance in another trait.
PHENOTYPIC SELECTION: Selection based solely on an individual's phenotype.
PHENOTYPIC SELECTION DIFFERENTIAL: The difference between the mean performance of those individuals selected to be parents and the average performance of all potential parents, expressed in units of the trait.
PHENOTYPIC SELECTION INDEX: A form of economic selection index used with phenotypic selection. In the classic form of phenotypic index, the traits in the index are identical to the traits in the breeding objective.
PIEBALD: Pinto; in the New Zealand color study, an alpaca with white and black patches.
PINTO: A two-colored animal characterized by large patches of color.
PLANTEL: The best of the plantation. Often used to refer to the finest of the herd or the best breeding stock.
POLLED: Hornless.
POLYDACTYLISM: Having many toes, or more than the ordinary complement of toes.
POLYGENES: Multiple genes that affect the same trait.
POLYGENIC TRAIT: A trait affected by many genes, no single gene has an over-riding influence.
POPULATION: A group of intermating individuals. The term can refer to a breed, an entire species, a single herd or flock, or even a small group of animals within a herd.
POPULATION GENETICS: The study of factors affecting gene and genotypic frequencies in a population.
POPULATION MEAN: The average phenotypic value of all individuals in population.
POPULATION MEASURE: Any measure applied to a population as opposed to an individual.
POSITIVE ASSORTATIVE MATING: The mating of similar individuals.
PREPOTENCY: The ability of an individual to produce progeny whose performance is especially like its own and/or is especially uniform.
PRODUCING ABILITY: The performance potential of an individual for a repeated trait.
PROGENY DATA: Information on the genotype or performance of descendants of an individual.
PROGENY DIFFERENCE: Also transmitting ability. Half an individual's breeding value. The expected difference between the mean performance of the individual's progeny and the mean performance of all progeny (assuming randomly chosen mates).
PROGENY TEST: A test used to help predict an individual's breeding values involving multiple matings of that individual and evaluation of its offspring.
PUNA: The high barren tundra zone of the Andes mountains.
PUNNETT SQUARE: A two-dimensional grid used to determine the possible zygotes obtainable from a mating.
PUREBLOOD: An animal of unmixed ancestry; bred from members of a recognized breed or strain without a mixture of other blood over many generations.
PUREBRED: Wholly of one breed or line (as opposed to crossbred).
PUREBREEDING: Also straightbreeding. The mating of purebreds of the same breed.
QIEILU: Quechua word for the color yellow.
QUALITATIVE TRAIT: A trait in which phenotypes are expressed in categories.
QUANTITATIVE TRAIT: A trait in which phenotypes show continuous (numerical) expression.
QUECHUA: A group of Indian peoples of Central Peru. Original founders of the Incan civilization. Today, the Quechuan people are the primary shepherds of alpaca in the Altiplano.
QUINTAL: Hundred weight (metric system).
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