Random regression models to estimate test-day milk yield genetic parameters Holstein cows in Southeastern Brazil

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

Genetic and environmental heterogeneity of residual variance of weight traits in Nellore beef cattle

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

Non invasive methods for genetic analysis applied to ecological and behavioral studies in Latino-America

Documenting the presence and abundance of the neotropical mammals is the first step for understanding their population ecology, behavior and genetic dynamics in designing conservation plans. The combination of field research with molecular genetics techniques are new tools that provide valuable biological information avoiding the disturbance in the ecosystems, trying to minimize the human impact in the process to gather biological information. The objective of this paper is to review the available non invasive sampling techniques that have been used in Neotropical mammal studies to apply to determine the presence and abundance, population structure, sex ratio, taxonomic diagnostic using mitochondrial markers, and assessing genetic variability using nuclear markers. There are a wide range of non invasive sampling techniques used to determine the species identification that inhabit an area such as searching for tracks, feces, and carcasses. Other useful equipment is the camera traps that can generate an image bank that can be valuable to assess species presence and abundance by morphology. With recent advances in molecular biology, it is now possible to use the trace amounts of DNA in feces and amplify it to analyze the species diversity in an area, and the genetic variability at intraspecific level. This is particularly helpful in cases of sympatric and cryptic species in which morphology failed to diagnose the taxonomic status of several species of brocket deer of the genus Mazama.

Genetic variability of residual variance of production traits in Nellore beef cattle

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

Genetic differences between strains of Biomphalaria glabrata (Planorbidae) that are susceptible and unsusceptible to schistosomiasis

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

Genetic diversity and antifungal susceptibility testing of Trichosporon asahii isolated of Intensive Care Units patients

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Large-scale transcriptome analyses reveal new genetic marker candidates of head, neck, and thyroid cancer

A detailed genome mapping analysis of 213,636 expressed sequence tags (EST) derived from nontumor and tumor tissues of the oral cavity, larynx, pharynx, and thyroid was done. Transcripts matching known human genes were identified; potential new splice variants were flagged and subjected to manual curation, pointing to 788 putatively new alternative splicing isoforms, the majority (75%) being insertion events. A subset of 34 new splicing isoforms (5% of 788 events) was selected and 23 (68%) were confirmed by reverse transcription-PCR and DNA sequencing. Putative new genes were revealed, including six transcripts mapped to well-studied chromosomes such as 22, as well as transcripts that mapped to 253 intergenic regions. In addition, 2,251 noncoding intronic RNAs, eventually involved in transcriptional regulation, were found. A set of 250 candidate markers for loss of heterozygosis or gene amplification was selected by identifying transcripts that mapped to genomic regions previously known to be frequently amplified or deleted in head, neck, and thyroid tumors. Three of these markers were evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR in an independent set of individual samples. Along with detailed clinical data about tumor origin, the information reported here is now publicly available on a dedicated Web site as a resource for further biological investigation. This first in silico reconstruction of the head, neck, and thyroid transcriptomes points to a wealth of new candidate markers that can be used for future studies on the molecular basis of these tumors. Similar analysis is warranted for a number of other tumors for which large EST data sets are available.

Genetic structure of populations of Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group-1 IA from soybean in Brazil

The Basidiomycete fungus Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group (AG)-1 IA is a major pathogen of soybean in Brazil, where the average yield losses have reached 30 to 60% in some states in Northern Brazil. No information is currently available concerning levels of genetic diversity and population structure for this pathogen in Brazil. A total of 232 isolates of R. solani AG1 IA were collected from five soybean fields in the most important soybean production areas in central-western, northern, and northeastern Brazil. These isolates were genotyped using 10 microsatellite loci. Most of the multilocus genotypes (MLGTs) were site-specific, with few MLGTs shared among populations. Significant population subdivision was evident. High levels of admixture were observed for populations from Mato Grosso and Tocantins. After removing admixed genotypes, three out of five field populations (Maranhao, Mato Grosso, and Tocantins), were in Hardy-Weinberg (HW) equilibrium, consistent with sexual recombination. HW and gametic disequilibrium were found for the remaining soybean-infecting populations. The findings of low genotypic diversity, departures from HW equilibrium, gametic disequilibrium, and high degree of population subdivision in these R. solani AG-1 IA populations from Brazil are consistent with predominantly asexual reproduction, short-distance dispersal of vegetative propagules (mycelium or sclerotia), and limited long-distance dispersal, possibly via contaminated seed. None of the soybean-infecting populations showed a reduction in population size (bottleneck effect). We detected asymmetric historical migration among the soybean-infecting populations, which could explain the observed levels of subdivision.

Genetic and environmental factors that affect the best time of Thoroughbred horses in Brazil

On the basis of information provided by the Brazilian Association of Race Horse Breeders, we analysed the racing performance of 947 Thoroughbred horses in races held from 1985 to 1992. The performance was evaluated using the best, time of the animals. The variance component was obtained by the derivative-free restricted maximum likelihood method, and the model used contained fixed effects of the racing month and year, sex, race track, track condition, animal age, number of competitors in race, and distance, and the random animal effect. The low heritability estimate obtained (0.12) indicates that selection based on animal phenotypic value must induce small genetic changes in this trail.

Integrating geo-referenced multiscale and multidisciplinary data for the management of biodiversity in livestock genetic resources

P>In livestock genetic resource conservation, decision making about conservation priorities is based on the simultaneous analysis of several different criteria that may contribute to long-term sustainable breeding conditions, such as genetic and demographic characteristics, environmental conditions, and role of the breed in the local or regional economy. Here we address methods to integrate different data sets and highlight problems related to interdisciplinary comparisons. Data integration is based on the use of geographic coordinates and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In addition to technical problems related to projection systems, GIS have to face the challenging issue of the non homogeneous scale of their data sets. We give examples of the successful use of GIS for data integration and examine the risk of obtaining biased results when integrating datasets that have been captured at different scales.

Genetic variability of Herpailurus yagouaroundi, Puma concolor and Panthera onca (Mammalia, Felidae) studied using Felis catus microsatellites

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Genetic linkage map of chicken chromosome 1 from a Brazilian resource population

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

Genetic variability in natural populations of Zeyheria montana mart. from the Brazilian Cerrado

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

Structure and genetic relationships between Brazilian naturalized and exotic purebred goat domestic goat (Capra hircus) breeds based on microsatellites

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

Estimation of (co)variance components and genetic parameters for weights of red-winged tinamou using random regression models

Com este trabalho objetivou-se determinar parâmetros genéticos para peso corporal de perdizes em cativeiro. Foram utilizados modelos de regressão aleatória na análise dos dados considerando os efeitos genéticos aditivos diretos (AD) e de ambiente permanente de animal (AP) como aleatórios. As variâncias residuais foram modeladas utilizando-se funções de variância de ordem 5. A curva média da população foi ajustada por polinômios ortogonais de Legendre de ordem 6. Os efeitos genéticos aditivos diretos e de ambiente permanente de animal foram modelados utilizando-se polinômios de Legendre de segunda a nona ordem. Os melhores resultados foram obtidos pelos modelos de ordem 6 de ajuste para os efeitos genéticos aditivos diretos e de ordem 3 para os de ambiente permanente pelo Critério de Informação de Akaike e ordem 3 para ambos os efeitos pelos Critério de Informação Bayesiano de Schwartz e Teste de Razão de Verossimilhança. As herdabilidades estimadas variaram de 0,02 a 0,57. O primeiro autovalor respondeu por 94 e 90% da variação decorrente de efeitos aditivos diretos e de ambiente permanente, respectivamente. A seleção de perdizes para peso corporal é mais efetiva a partir de 112 dias de idade.