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A theory of mass selection in a small population was developed, and the mean change in gene frequencies, the variance of gene frequency changes and the expected gain in the mean phenotypic value of an offspring population were formulated in terms of a generalized selection differential and the additive and dominance effects of genes. The magnitude of the variance of changes in gene frequency was compared with the magnitude of the variance expected from the genetic random drift in a population with the same gene frequency and of the same size in absence of selection. The former was found to be usually smaller than the latter when the gene frequency ranged from intermediate to high and when selection was directed for a high performance. The usual prediction equation for gain from selection in an infinite population was compared with the expected gain formula derived for a small population. The size of the population did not cause a serious difference between the two expected gains when there was no dominance effect of genes. Dominance alone could cause the usual prediction to be slightly more biased. The joint effects of the finite size of population and dominance gene action could amount to a considerable bias in the usual prediction equation. Such a bias can be, in the main, accounted for by the inbreeding depression.

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