Search results for "Heritability"

HERITABILITIES OF DOMINANCE-RELATED TRAITS IN MALE BANK VOLES (CLETHRIONOMYS GLAREOLUS)

1998

A number of studies have shown that in several animal species females prefer dominant males as mating partners, but fewer attempts have been made to measure possible indirect benefits of this choice. One reason for this may be that, even though dominance is a widely used concept, the definition of dominance still remains controversial. Furthermore, defining and measuring the heritability of social behaviors is problematic because they are not individual traits but, by definition, involve interactions between at least two individuals. In this study we estimated heritabilities and coefficients of additive genetic variances (CVA) for male traits that are closely associated with dominance and f…

Characterization of 150 Wheat Cultivars by LC-MS-Based Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics Unravels Possibilities to Design Wheat Better for Baking Qu…

2021

Wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp. aestivum) contributes to 20% of the human protein supply, delivers essential amino acids and is of fundamental importance for bread and pasta quality. Wheat proteins are also involved in adverse human reactions like celiac disease (CD), wheat allergy (WA) and non-celiac wheat sensitivity (NCWS). Using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based label-free quantitative (LFQ) proteomics of aqueous flour extracts, we determined 756 proteins across 150 wheat cultivars grown in three environments. However, only 303 proteins were stably expressed across all environments in at least one cultivar and only 89 proteins thereof across all 150 cultivars. This und…

2020

Abstract To understand how variation in warning displays evolves and is maintained, we need to understand not only how perceivers of these traits select color and toxicity but also the sources of the genetic and phenotypic variation exposed to selection by them. We studied these aspects in the wood tiger moth Arctia plantaginis, which has two locally co-occurring male color morphs in Europe: yellow and white. When threatened, both morphs produce defensive secretions from their abdomen and from thoracic glands. Abdominal fluid has shown to be more important against invertebrate predators than avian predators, and the defensive secretion of the yellow morph is more effective against ants. Her…

Can number and size of offspring increase simultaneously?--a central life-history trade-off reconsidered.

2011

Abstract Background To maximize their fitness, parents are assumed to allocate their resources optimally between number and size of offspring. Although this fundamental life-history trade-off has been subject to long standing interest, its genetic basis, especially in wild mammals, still remains unresolved. One important reason for this problem is that a large multigenerational pedigree is required to conduct a reliable analysis of this trade-off. Results We used the REML-animal model to estimate genetic parameters for litter size and individual birth size for a common Palearctic small mammal, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). Even though a phenotypic trade-off between offspring number and …

Genetic correlation between resistance to oxidative stress and reproductive life span in a bird species.

2010

Evolutionary theories propose that aging is the result of a trade-off between self-maintenance and reproduction, and oxidative stress may play a crucial role in such a trade-off. Phenotypic manipulations have revealed that a high investment in reproduction leads to a decline in the organism's resistance to oxidative stress, which could in turn accelerate aging. Here, by using quantitative genetic analyses as a tool to disentangle genetic effects from phenotypic variances, the relationship between resistance to oxidative stress at sexual maturity and two key reproductive life-history traits (i.e., number of breeding events during life and age at last reproduction) was analyzed in cross-foste…

Boldness-exploration behavioral syndrome: interfamily variability and repeatability of personality traits in the young of the convict cichlid (Amatit…

2015

9 pages; International audience; In recent years, considerable research interest in behavioral ecology has focused on characterizing and understanding individual differences in behavior that are consistent over time and across contexts, termed animal “personalities,” and correlations between various behaviors across contexts, termed behavioral syndromes. Although there is some evidence that differences in personality among individuals within populations can be genetically based and adaptive, when and how individual personality differences emerge in a population is not well understood, but of considerable general interest. Here, using juveniles of the convict cichlid (Amatitlania siquia) as …

Does telomere length predict decline in physical functioning in older twin sisters during an 11-year follow-up?

2016

Background: Leucocyte telomere length (LTL) is known to be associated with mortality, but its association with age-related decline in physical functioning and the development of disability is less clear. This study examined the associations between LTL and physical functioning, and investigated whether LTL predicts level of physical functioning over an 11- year follow-up. Methods: Older mono- (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin sisters (n=386) participated in the study. Relative LTL was measured by qPCR at baseline. Physical functioning was measured by 6-min walking distance and level of physical activity (PA). Walking distance was measured at baseline and at 3-year follow-up. PA was assessed by q…

Maternal and fetal genetic contribution to gestational weight gain

2018

Background: Clinical recommendations to limit gestational weight gain (GWG) imply high GWG is causally related to adverse outcomes in mother or offspring, but GWG is the sum of several inter-related complex phenotypes (maternal fat deposition and vascular expansion, placenta, amniotic fluid and fetal growth). Understanding the genetic contribution to GWG could help clarify the potential effect of its different components on maternal and offspring health. Here we explore the genetic contribution to total, early and late GWG. Participants and methods: A genome-wide association study was used to identify maternal and fetal variants contributing to GWG in up to 10 543 mothers and 16 317 offspri…

Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies New Candidate Markers for Somatic Cells Score in a Local Dairy Sheep

2021

In the Mediterranean basin countries, the dairy sheep production is usually based on local breeds, which are very well-adapted to their production systems and environments and can indeed guarantee income, employment, and economic viability in areas where production alternatives are scarce or non-existent. Mastitis is still one of the greatest problems affecting commercial milk production. However, genetic evaluation of mastitis is particularly difficult because of its low heritability and the categorical nature of the trait. The aim of this study was to identify genomic regions putatively associated with somatic cells count (SCC) in the local economically important Valle del Belice sheep br…

Genetic association study of childhood aggression across raters, instruments, and age

2021

AbstractChildhood aggressive behavior (AGG) has a substantial heritability of around 50%. Here we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) of childhood AGG, in which all phenotype measures across childhood ages from multiple assessors were included. We analyzed phenotype assessments for a total of 328 935 observations from 87 485 children aged between 1.5 and 18 years, while accounting for sample overlap. We also meta-analyzed within subsets of the data, i.e., within rater, instrument and age. SNP-heritability for the overall meta-analysis (AGGoverall) was 3.31% (SE = 0.0038). We found no genome-wide significant SNPs for AGGoverall. The gene-based analysis returned three sign…