Optimizing purebred selection for crossbred performance using QTL with different degrees of dominance

A method was developed to optimize simultaneous selection for a quantitative trait with a known QTL within a male and a female line to maximize crossbred performance from a two-way cross. Strategies to maximize cumulative discounted response in crossbred performance over ten generations were derived by optimizing weights in an index of a QTL and phenotype. Strategies were compared to selection on purebred phenotype. Extra responses were limited for QTL with additive and partial dominance effects, but substantial for QTL with over-dominance, for which optimal QTL selection resulted in differential selection in male and female lines to increase the frequency of heterozygotes and polygenic responses. For over-dominant QTL, maximization of crossbred performance one generation at a time resulted in similar responses as optimization across all generations and simultaneous optimal selection in a male and female line resulted in greater response than optimal selection within a single line without crossbreeding. Results show that strategic use of information on over-dominant QTL can enhance crossbred performance without crossbred testing.     

A Monte Carlo investigation of homogeneity tests of the odds ratio under various sample size configurations

Epidemiologic data for case-control studies are often summarized into K 2 x 2 tables. Given a fixed number of cases and controls, the degree of sparseness in the data depends on the number of strata, K. The effect of increasing stratification on size and power of seven tests of homogeneity of the odds ratio is studied using Monte Carlo methods. In all the designs considered here, the numbers of cases and controls per stratum are the same. Considering both size and power in non-sparse-data settings, we recommend the Breslow-Day statistic (1980, Statistical Methods in Cancer Research, 1. The Analysis of Case-Control Studies, p. 142; Lyon: International Agency for Research on Cancer) for general use. In sparse-data settings the T4 statistic of Liang and Self (1985, Biometrika 72, 353-358) performs the best when all tables, regardless of sample size, have odds ratios generated from the same distribution. In sparse-data settings characterized by a large table with an odds ratio of 1 and many small tables with odds ratios greater than 1, the T5 statistic of Liang and Self (1985) performs the best. One of the most important results of this study is the generally low power for all homogeneity tests especially when the data are sparse.     

Effect of postnatal development on calcium currents and slow charge movement in mammalian skeletal muscle

Single- (whole-cell patch) and two-electrode voltage-clamp techniques were used to measure transient (Ifast) and sustained (Islow) calcium currents, linear capacitance, and slow, voltage-dependent charge movements in freshly dissociated fibers of the flexor digitorum brevis (FDB) muscle of rats of various postnatal ages. Peak Ifast was largest in FDB fibers of neonatal (1-5 d) rats, having a magnitude in 10 mM external Ca of 1.4 +/- 0.9 pA/pF (mean +/- SD; current normalized by linear fiber capacitance). Peak Ifast was smaller in FDB fibers of older animals, and by approximately 3 wk postnatal, it was so small as to be unmeasurable. By contrast, the magnitudes of Islow and charge movement increased substantially during postnatal development. Peak Islow was 3.6 +/- 2.5 pA/pF in FDB fibers of 1-5-d rats and increased to 16.4 +/- 6.5 pA/pF in 45-50-d-old rats; for these same two age groups, Qmax, the total mobile charge measurable as charge movement, was 6.0 +/- 1.7 and 23.8 +/- 4.0 nC/microF, respectively. As both Islow and charge movement are thought to arise in the transverse-tubular system, linear capacitance normalized by the area of fiber surface was determined as an indirect measure of the membrane area of the t-system relative to that of the fiber surface. This parameter increased from 1.5 +/- 0.2 microF/cm2 in 2-d fibers to 2.9 +/- 0.4 microF/cm2 in 44-d fibers. The increases in peak Islow, Qmax, and normalized linear capacitance all had similar time courses. Although the function of Islow is unknown, the substantial postnatal increase in its magnitude suggests that it plays an important role in the physiology of skeletal muscle.     

Location of a second partitioning region (ParL) on the F plasmid

Abstract The leading region of the F plasmid has been found to extend the maintenance of the normally unstable plasmid vector pACYC184. This ability is due to effective partitioning of plasmid molecules at cell division. Cloning, deletion analysis and transposon mutagenesis have located the partitioning region (ParL) to be encoded within 63.65–64.11F. Complementation studies indicated that parL is a cis -acting locus.     

Effect of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protein R (vpr) gene expression on basic cellular function of fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Vpr protein affects cell morphology and prevents proliferation of human cells by induction of cell cycle G2 arrest. In this study, we used the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a model system to investigate the cellular effects of HIV-1 vpr gene expression. The vpr gene was cloned into an inducible fission yeast gene expression vector and expressed in wild-type S. pombe cells, and using these cells, we were able to demonstrate the specific Vpr-induced effects by induction and suppression of vpr gene expression. Induction of HIV-1 vpr gene expression affected S. pombe at the colonial, cellular, and molecular levels. Specifically, Vpr induced small-colony formation, polymorphic cells, growth delay, and cell cycle G2 arrest. Additionally, Vpr-induced G2 arrest appeared to be independent of cell size and morphological changes. The cell cycle G2 arrest correlated with increased phosphorylation of p34cdc2, suggesting negative regulation of mitosis by HIV-1 Vpr. Treatment of Vpr-induced cell with a protein phosphatase inhibitor, okadaic acid, transiently suppressed cell cycle arrest and morphological changes. This observation implicates possible involvement of protein phosphatase(s) in the effects of Vpr. Together, these data showed that the HIV-1 Vpr-induced cellular changes in S. pombe are similar to those observed in human cells. Therefore, the S. pombe system is suited for further investigation of the HIV-1 vpr gene functions.     

A study on the minimum number of loci required for genetic evaluation using a finite locus model

For a finite locus model, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods can be used to estimate the conditional mean of genotypic values given phenotypes, which is also known as the best predictor (BP). When computationally feasible, this type of genetic prediction provides an elegant solution to the problem of genetic evaluation under non-additive inheritance, especially for crossbred data. Successful application of MCMC methods for genetic evaluation using finite locus models depends, among other factors, on the number of loci assumed in the model. The effect of the assumed number of loci on evaluations obtained by BP was investigated using data simulated with about 100 loci. For several small pedigrees, genetic evaluations obtained by best linear prediction (BLP) were compared to genetic evaluations obtained by BP. For BLP evaluation, used here as the standard of comparison, only the first and second moments of the joint distribution of the genotypic and phenotypic values must be known. These moments were calculated from the gene frequencies and genotypic effects used in the simulation model. BP evaluation requires the complete distribution to be known. For each model used for BP evaluation, the gene frequencies and genotypic effects, which completely specify the required distribution, were derived such that the genotypic mean, the additive variance, and the dominance variance were the same as in the simulation model. For lowly heritable traits, evaluations obtained by BP under models with up to three loci closely matched the evaluations obtained by BLP for both purebred and crossbred data. For highly heritable traits, models with up to six loci were needed to match the evaluations obtained by BLP.     

Impacts of soil temperature,phenology and plant community composition on invertebrate herbivory in a natural warming experiment

Species and community-level responses to warming are well documented, with plants and invertebrates known to alter their range, phenology or composition as temperature increases. The effects of warming on biotic interactions are less clearly understood, but can have consequences that cascade through ecological networks. Here, we used a natural soil temperature gradient of 5–35°C in the Hengill geothermal valley, Iceland, to investigate the effects of temperature on plant community composition and plant–invertebrate interactions. We quantified the level of invertebrate herbivory on the plant community across the temperature gradient and the interactive effects of temperature, plant phenology (i.e. development stage) and vegetation community composition on the probability of herbivory for three ubiquitous plant species, Cardamine pratensis, Cerastium fontanum and Viola palustris. We found that the percentage cover of graminoids and forbs increased, while the amount of litter decreased, with increasing soil temperature. Invertebrate herbivory also increased with soil temperature at the plant community level, but this was underpinned by different effects of temperature on herbivory for individual plant species, mediated by the seasonal development of plants and the composition of the surrounding vegetation. This illustrates the importance of considering the development stage of organisms in climate change research given the variable effects of temperature on susceptibility to herbivory at different ontogenetic stages.     

A focus on fixation

Three fixation issues related to immunostaining are discussed here: 1) Generally, a tissue block is fixed, then embedded and sectioned (pre-fixation). The type of fixative applied, crosslinking or coagulating, has an impact on selecting an epitope retrieval method. Individual antigens have a fixation–retrieval characteristic. 2) A long fixation time, especially with crosslinking fixatives, may compromise the result of immunostaining. This negative effect varies among different antigens and can be partially restored by applying a more sensitive/efficient detection system such as tyramide amplification. 3) Sections cut from a fresh frozen tissue block usually are acetone fixed (post-fixation). This was accepted as the “gold standard” for a long time. Post-fixation, however, may have serious consequences for preservation of small peptides leaking from the cut open cells, whereas this is not the case with pre-fixed intact cells. Consequently, the concept of an acetone post-fixed cryostat tissue section as “gold standard” no longer exists and a more appropriate use of the terms immunohistochemistry and immunocytochemistry therefore seems justified. For many antibodies, it is not known whether a formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue specimen is appropriate. Suggestions are made for creating a positive control cell block for testing such antibodies.     

Association between pygmy right whales (Caperea marginata) and areas of high marine productivity off Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Opportunistic sightings and strandings of Caperea marginata (n=196) from the vicinity of Australia and New Zealand (1884 to early 2007) were used to relate geographic and temporal patterns to oceanographic and broad-scale climatic variability. Records were not uniformly distributed along the coast and more (69%) were from Australia than New Zealand. Seven coastal whale ‘hotspots’ were identified which accounted for 61% of records with locality data. Half of the hotspot records were from southeast (37) and northwest (20) Tasmania—others each had 9–15 events. Upwelling and/or high zooplankton abundance has been documented near all whale hotspots. Records of C. marginata occurred in all months, with 75% in spring and summer. Inter-annual variability showed broad agreement between increased whale records (usually in spring/summer) and strongly positive ‘Niño 3.4’ during 1980–1995 but not thereafter. Coastal upwelling and productivity increase during climatic phenomena such as El Niño and are likely to be quickly beneficial to plankton-feeding whales such as C. marginata.