The origin and the development of the concepts of classical genetic evaluation
Résumé
Fundamental aspects of genetic evaluation are addressed through some milestones: Genesis of paradigmatic concepts of genotype and phenotype, The polygenic model of Fisher, and the covariance between relatives, Henderson's works, which, hand in hand with the dramatic increase of computing facilities, have enabled us to perform genetic evaluation at a population level. These concepts, models and methods have been developed within a pragmatic approach. They have been proved efficient thanks to the response to selection in most breeding programs.