African-Derived mitochondria in South American native cattle breeds (Bos taurus): Evidence of a new taurine mitochondrial lineage

This article reports the nucleotide diversity within the control region of 42 mitochondrial chromosomes belonging to five South American native cattle breeds (Bos taurus). Analysis of these data in conjunction with B. taurus and B. indicus sequences from Africa, Europe, the Near East, India, and Japan allowed the recognition of eight new mitochondrial haplotypes and their relative positions in a phylogenetic network. The structure of genetic variation among different hypothetical groupings was tested through the molecular variance decomposition, which was best explained by haplotype group components. Haplotypes surveyed were classified as European-related and African-related. Unexpectedly, two haplotypes within the African cluster were more divergent from the African consensus than the latter from the European consensus. A neighbor-joining tree shows the position of two haplotypes compared to European/African mitochondrial lineage splitting. This different and putatively ancestral mitochondrial lineage (AA) is supported by the calibration of sequence divergence based on the Bos-Bison separation. The European/African mitochondria divergence might be subsequent (67,100 years before present) to that between AA and Africans (84,700 years before present), also preceding domestication times. These genetic data could reflect the haplotype distribution of Iberian cattle five centuries ago.

Comparison of non-linear growth models to describe the growth curve in West African Dwarf sheep

The objectives of this study were to compare the goodness of fit of four non-linear growth models, i.e. Brody, Gompertz, Logistic and Von Bertalanffy, in West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep. A total of 5274 monthly weight records from birth up to 180 days of age from 889 lambs, collected during 2001 to 2004 in Betecoucou breeding farm in Benin were used. In the preliminary analysis, the General Linear Model Procedure of the Statistical Analysis Systems Institute was applied to the dataset to identify the significant effects of the sex of lamb (male and female), type of birth (single and twin), season of birth (rainy season and dry season), parity of dam (1, 2 and 3) and year of birth (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004) on the observed birth weight and monthly weight up to 6 months of age. The models parameters (A, B and k), coefficient of determination (112), mean square error (MSE) were calculated using language of technical computing package Matlab(R), 2006. The mean values of A, B and k were substituted into each model to calculate the corresponding Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC). Among the four growth functions, the Brody model has been selected for its accuracy of fit according to the higher R(2), lower MSE and A/C Finally, the parameters A, B and k were adjusted in Matlab(R) 2006 for the sex of lamb, year of birth, season of birth, birth type and the parity of ewe, providing a specific slope of the Brody growth curve. The results of this study suggest that Brody model can be useful for WAD sheep breeding in Betecoucou farm conditions through growth monitoring.

The placenta as a barrier for toxic and essential elements in paired maternal and cord blood samples of South African delivering women

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Ocular melanoma and mammary mucinous carcinoma in an African lion

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Morphological studies on the heart ventricle of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

The histological and ultrastructural characteristics of the heart ventricle in Clarias gariepinus (African catfish) has been studied by light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The ventricle of the heart has a saccular shape and the myocardial wall consists of an outer thin compact myocardium and an inner well-developed spongy myocardium. The myocardial layer has small myocytes, interstitial spaces and blood vessels. The myocytes are the major constituents of the ventricular wall. They are long cells, with large nuclei, and predominantly euchromatin. The sarcoplasmic reticulum of the ventricular myocytes consists of a network of tubules and subsarcolemmal cisternae oriented mainly along the longitudinal axis of the myofibrils. In contrast to the ventricular structure of other fish species described in the literature (Greer-Walker et al., 1985 Santer, 1985 Sanchez-Quintana et al., 1995, 1996), the African catfish, a freshwater sedentary fish recently introduced in neotropical climatic environments, showed a saccular ventricle that consisted of two muscle layers, a thin compact layer with large vessels and a developed spongy layer. The ultrastructure of the ventricular myocardium of C.gariepinus is similar to that of other teleosts, inclusive that of fish with other swimming habits.

Chromosome Evolution in African Cichlid Fish: Contributions from the Physical Mapping of Repeated DNAs

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The B chromosomes of the African cichlid fish Haplochromis obliquidens harbour 18S rRNA gene copies

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Cardiorespiratory responses to hypoxia in the African catfish, Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822), an air-breathing fish

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The Araguaia fold belt, Brazil: A reactivated Brasiliano-Pan-African cycle (550 Ma) geosuture

The Araguaia-Tocantins geosuture, which separates the Araguaia Fold Belt (AFB) from the Archean Amazonian Craton, was active in the late Middle Proterozoic. The Baixo Araguaia Supergroup was deposited, consisting of the Estrondo Group (lower quartzites with intercalated schists), Xambioá Formation (schists), and Canto da Vazante Formation (upper feldspathic schists); and the Tocantins Group consisting of the Couto Magalhaës Formation (phyllites, quartzites, slates, limestones, and metacherts) and Pequizeiro Formation (upper chlorite schists); and associated mafic-ultramafic bodies. The deformational history includes four regional phases of deformation within this supracrustal sequence: recumbent folds with vergence to the west; refolding with a N-S trend; an intense crenulation episode; and late thrusting from east to west. Metamorphism is of intermediate or intermediate-high pressure type with garnet, biotite, chlorite, and sericite isograds succeeded by a slightly or non-metamorphosed zone, from east to west. Rocks surrounding sparse gneissic-cored domes contain isograds of staurolite, kyanite, and fibrolite. These isograds are believed to be associated with the 1100 Ma Uruaçuano event. The Brasiliano Orogeny strongly affected the AFB with displacements due to transcurrent reactivation of great and old faults of the basement, slight folding in the supracrustal sequence, intrusion of small granite bodies, and development of domes with associated normal faults. The area underlain by the Estrondo Group was uplifted at this time, causing the deposition of the Rio das Barreiras polymictic conglomerate of the central area. K-Ar and Rb-Sr analyses date this thermo-tectonic event at 550 ± 100 Ma. The Archean basement is exposed in the cores of domes as a granite-gneiss association, the Colméia complex, which shows thermo-tectonic features that may be interpreted as polycyclic imprints (Jequié, Transamazonian?, Uruaçuano, and Brasiliano Events). © 1989.

Analysis of rain quality data from the South African interior

Rain acidity may be ascribed to emissions from power station stacks, as well as emissions from other industry, biomass burning, maritime influences, agricultural influences, etc. Rain quality data are available for 30 sites in the South African interior, some from as early as 1985 for up to 14 rainfall seasons, while others only have relatively short records. The article examines trends over time in the raw and volume weighted concentrations of the parameters measured, separately for each of the sites for which sufficient data are available. The main thrust, however, is to examine the inter-relationship structure between the concentrations within each rain event (unweighted data), separately for each site, and to examine whether these inter-relationships have changed over time. The rain events at individual sites can be characterized by approximately eight combinations of rainfall parameters (or rain composition signatures), and these are common to all sites. Some sites will have more events from one signature than another, but there appear to be no signatures unique to a single site. Analysis via factor and cluster analysis, with a correspondence analysis of the results, also aid interpretation of the patterns. This spatio-temporal analysis, performed by pooling all rain event data, irrespective of site or time period, results in nine combinations of rainfall parameters being sufficient to characterize the rain events. The sites and rainfall seasons show patterns in these combinations of parameters, with some combinations appearing more frequently during certain rainfall seasons. In particular, the presence of the combination of low acetate and formate with high magnesium appears to be increasing in the later rainfall seasons, as does this combination together with calcium, sodium, chloride, potassium and fluoride. As expected, sites close together exhibit similar signatures. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Structural and geochronological studies of the Médio Coreaú domain, NE Brazil: Constraints on Brasiliano/Pan-African tectonic evolution in the NW part of the Borborema Province

Recent structural investigations and geochronological studies of rocks from the Médio Coreaú domain in the NW part of northeast Brazil's Borborema Province provide important constraints on the tectonic evolution of the region both preceeding and during the assembly of West Gondwana. Field observations of structural features and fabrics have revealed the presence of four distinct deformational phases in the MCD: D1, D2, D3 and D4. Only the early Paleoproterozoic gneisses record the D1 tectonic event and its preservation is cryptic owing to strong overprinting by the subsequent tectonic phases. The D2, D3 and D4 events affected younger supracrustal rocks and Neoproterzoic magmatic units, and U-Pb geochronological constraints show that all of these tectonic phases represent deformational events that occurred during Brasiliano collision between the West African craton and the NW part of the Borborema Province. The D2 phase, lasting between ca. 622 and 591 Ma, represents a frontal collision stage, which generated NW verging thrust-nappe systems, low-angle foliation, high-grade metamorphism and crustal anatexis. Transition to a strike-slip regime (D3) occurred at around 591 Ma when the region entered a phase of escape tectonics. During this time, the motion of crustal blocks towards NE and E was accommodated along numerous anastomosing shear zones. Syntectonic emplacement of granitoid plutons took place in transtensional domains of the shear zone system. The intrusion of late tectonic granitoids and rapid uplift and cooling of the orogen around 560 Ma as a result of D4 transpressional movements marked the end of the D3 transcurrent regime. These findings show that only the early Paleoproterozoic gneisses in the Médio Coreaú domain are polycyclic in nature. Rather than representing distinct orogenic events, the D2, D3 and D4 tectonic phases are a manifestation of progressive deformational events that developed in response to changes in the regional stress field during convergence and collision between the Borborema Province and its surrounding cratons.

Substitution of corn and soybean oil by cassava meal and African palm tree oil in diets of laying hens

Fourty-two White Leghorns laying hens, from the commercial Cuban hybrid L-33, were used for eight weeks during the laying peak (36 to 43 weeks of age), to assess the substitution of corn by cassava root meal (Manihot esculenta Crantz) and the crude soybean oil by crude oil of African palm tree (Elaeis guineensis J.) in the diets of laying hens. Analysis of variance was conducted, according to simple classification design, with three treatments and 14 repetitions (a cage with a hen). The treatments consisted of three diets (1- corn meal + soybean oil; 2- 25 % cassava meal + African palm tree oil; 3- 53 % cassava meal + African palm tree oil), with 15.71 % CP; 3.83 % Ca and 0.36 % P available. The viability was of 100 % in all treatments. No differences were found for laying (92.21, 92.09 and 91.59 %), which surpassed the potential of this hybrid during the laying peak (90 %), conversion (118g feedstuff/egg in the three treatments), egg mass produced (3066, 3114 and 3071 g/bird) and mass conversion (1.99, 1.95 y 1.98 feed consumed/egg mass). The pigmentation of the egg yolk was reduced as the level of cassava meal increased in the diets (6, 4 and 3 at Roche's scale), as well as the cost of the feed consumed in 56 d per hen (2.56, 2.15 and 1.83 USD/bird). The possibility of substituting, totally, corn meal by that of cassava and soybean oil by that of the African palm tree in the diets of laying hens during the laying peak was determined, with positive economic effect and without damaging the productive performance of birds.

Meal of cassava foliage as pigment of diets with cassava meal and oil of African oil palm for laying hens

Twenty-eight White Leghorn laying hens, of the Cuban commercial hybrid L-33, were used for eight weeks within the laying peak (36 to 43 weeks of age), to evaluate the meal of root of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) and the crude oil of African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis J.) as pigments of the egg yolks, out of their incorporation to the diet of laying hens during the laying peak. The birds were allocated in individual cages, with 108 g of feed/bird/d, water ad libitum, and 16 h of light. Analysis of variance was performed, according to one-way design with two treatments and fourteen repetitions (one cage with one hen). The treatments consisted of two diets (I- cassava meal + African palm oil, II- cassava meal + African oil palm + 2.5 % of cassava foliage meal). The viability was of 100 % in all the treatments. No differences were found for laying (91.59 and 90.10 %), which surpassed the potential of this hybrid during the laying peak (90 %), feed conversion/egg (118 and 120 g of feed/egg), mass of egg produced (3071 and 3027 g/bird) and mass conversion (1.98 and 2.00). The pigmentation of the egg yolk was doubled, by adding 2.5 % of meal of cassava foliage to the diets (3 and 6 in the scale of Roche). It was likeable to enhance the pigmentation of the egg yolk and reduce the feeding costs of the laying hens, when including 2.5 % of meal of cassava foliage to diets where the cassava meal and the oil of the African oil palm are basic sources of starch and lipids for the laying hens.