Search results for " Breeding"
showing 10 items of 185 documents
Recreational noise pollution of traditional festivals reduces the juvenile productivity of an avian urban bioindicator.
2021
Noise is a pollutant of emergent concern for ecologists and conservation biologists. Recreational noise pollution, especially unpredictable and intermittent sounds, and its effects on wildlife and biodiversity have been poorly studied. Researchers have paid very little attention to the effect of noisy traditional festivals (fireworks and powder-guns). This study aimed to explore the effect of these recreational activities on the juvenile productivity of an urban avian bioindicator: the house sparrow. We studied five pairs of localities in the Valencia Region (E Spain) with noisy traditional festivals. Each pair was composed of one locality with festivals during the breeding season and the c…
Technology generation to dissemination: lessons learned from the tef improvement project
2018
Indigenous crops also known as orphan crops are key contributors to food security, which is becoming increasingly vulnerable with the current trend of population growth and climate change. They have the major advantage that they fit well into the general socio-economic and ecological context of developing world agriculture. However, most indigenous crops did not benefit from the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased the yield of major crops such as wheat and rice. Here, we describe the Tef Improvement Project, which employs both conventional- and molecular-breeding techniques to improve tef—an orphan crop important to the food security in the Horn of Africa, a region of the world w…
The targeted overexpression of SlCDF4 in the fruit enhances tomato size and yield involving gibberellin signalling
2020
AbstractTomato is one of the most widely cultivated vegetable crops and a model for studying fruit biology. Although several genes involved in the traits of fruit quality, development and size have been identified, little is known about the regulatory genes controlling its growth. In this study, we characterized the role of the tomato SlCDF4 gene in fruit development, a cycling DOF-type transcription factor highly expressed in fruits. The targeted overexpression of SlCDF4 gene in the fruit induced an increased yield based on a higher amount of both water and dry matter accumulated in the fruits. Accordingly, transcript levels of genes involved in water transport and cell division and expans…
Parental Care and Investment
2017
Parental care is common throughout the animal kingdom, and much variation exists among species in how, and how much, parents care for their offspring. In most species, females care more; in others, males care more and in some, caring is more or less equally shared between the sexes. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain patterns of parental care within and among species. These hypotheses invoke factors such as the relatedness (parentage certainty) of each parent to the brood; the sex ratio at maturation; the strength of sexual selection faced by each sex and the exact nature of any trade-offs between caring and other activities. Work is still ongoing to develop an overarching hyp…
A Complex Gene Network Mediated by Ethylene Signal Transduction TFs Defines the Flower Induction and Differentiation in Olea europaea L.
2021
The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is a typical Mediterranean crop, important for olive and oil production. The high tendency to bear fruits in an uneven manner, defined as irregular or alternate bearing, results in a significant economic impact for the high losses in olives and oil production. Buds from heavy loaded (‘ON’) and unloaded (‘OFF’) branches of a unique olive tree were collected in July and the next March to compare the transcriptomic profiles and get deep insight into the molecular mechanisms regulating floral induction and differentiation. A wide set of DEGs related to ethylene TFs and to hormonal, sugar, and phenylpropanoid pathways was identified in buds collected from ‘OFF’ …
An SNP-based saturated genetic map and QTL analysis of fruit-related traits in Zucchini using Genotyping-by-sequencing
2016
[EN] Background: Cucurbita pepo is a cucurbit with growing economic importance worldwide. Zucchini morphotype is the most important within this highly variable species. Recently, transcriptome and Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR)- and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)-based medium density maps have been reported, however further genomic tools are needed for efficient molecular breeding in the species. Our objective is to combine currently available complete transcriptomes and the Zucchini genome sequence with high throughput genotyping methods, mapping population development and extensive phenotyping to facilitate the advance of genomic research in this species. Results: We report the Genoty…
Microspore Embryogenesis Through Anther Culture in Citrus clementina Hort. ex Tan.
2016
Anther culture is a biotechnological method that allows to obtain, in one step, homozygous plants, very important to plant breeding, due to their numerous applications in mutation research, selection, genome sequencing, genetic analysis, and transformation. To induce the microspores, i.e., the immature male gametes, to switch from the normal gametophytic pathway to the sporophytic one, it is necessary to submit them to a type of stress, such as high or low temperature, starvation, or magnetic field. Stress can be applied to the donor plants and/or the fl oral buds or the anthers or the isolated microspores, before or during the culture. In this chapter, the protocol to induce gametic embryo…
Covariation and phenotypic integration in chemical communication displays: biosynthetic constraints and eco-evolutionary implications
2018
Chemical communication is ubiquitous. The identification of conserved structural elements in visual and acoustic communication is well established, but comparable information on chemical communication displays (CCDs) is lacking. We assessed the phenotypic integration of CCDs in a meta‐analysis to characterize patterns of covariation in CCDs and identified functional or biosynthetically constrained modules. Poorly integrated plant CCDs (i.e. low covariation between scent compounds) support the notion that plants often utilize one or few key compounds to repel antagonists or to attract pollinators and enemies of herbivores. Animal CCDs (mostly insect pheromones) were usually more integrated t…
Assessment of genetic diversity and relatedness in the Latvian potato genetic resources collection by DArT genotyping
2015
Potato (Solanum tuberosumL.) has been cultivated in Latvia since the 17th century, and formal breeding programmes have been established since the start of the 20th century. The Latvian potato genetic resource collection consists of 83 accessions of Latvian origin, including landraces, old cultivars released starting from the 1930's, modern cultivars and breeding material. These are maintained in field andin vitrocollections. Pedigree information about the potato cultivars is often limited, and the use of hybrids of local cultivars as parents is common in the Latvian potato breeding programme. Ninety-four Latvian potato varieties and breeding lines and some commonly used foreign accessions w…
Discovery of a Major QTL Controlling Trichome IV Density in Tomato Using K-Seq Genotyping
2021
[EN] Trichomes are a common morphological defense against pests, in particular, type IV glandular trichomes have been associated with resistance against different invertebrates. Cultivated tomatoes usually lack or have a very low density of type IV trichomes. Therefore, for sustainable management of this crop, breeding programs could incorporate some natural defense mechanisms, such as those afforded by trichomes, present in certain Solanum species. We have identified a S. pimpinellifolium accession with very high density of this type of trichomes. This accession was crossed with a S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme and a S. lycopersicum var. lycopersicum accessions, and the two resulting F2 …