Search results for "VARIATION"
showing 10 items of 2124 documents
Genetic diversity and population structure of Sicilian sheep breeds using microsatellite markers
2012
Abstract Genetic diversity studies in domestic animals aim at evaluating genetic variation within and across breeds mainly for conservation purposes. In Sicily, dairy sheep production represents an important resource for hilly and mountain areas economy. Their milk is used for the production of traditional raw milk cheeses, sometimes protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses. In some cases, the quality of these products is linked to a specific breed, i.e. mono-breed labelled cheeses and it is therefore important to be able to distinguish the milk of a breed from that of others, in order to guarantee both the consumer and the breed itself. In order to investigate the genetic structure an…
Genetic and environmental sources of variation for milk yield traits in Barbaresca siciliana breed
2001
Abstract Multi-trait animal model procedures were used to calculate variance for milk yield traits in the Barbaresca siciliana breed. The recorded data consisted of 14 791 lactations from 6678 ewes distributed among 44 herds from six provinces in Italy. The data-set with pedigree information used for the estimation of genetic parameters and correlation, included 6678 ewes with records, 757 dams, 4 paternal grandams, 28 maternal grandam and 2 maternal great-grandams, all without records, and additionally 301 sires, 3 paternal grandsires, 11 maternal grandsires and 1 maternal great-grandsires. The variables considered in the present study were the milk yield at 100 days (MY-100), 120 days (MY…
Short communication: casein haplotype variability in sicilian dairy goat breeds.
2008
In the Mediterranean region, goat milk production is an important economic activity. In the present study, 4 casein genes were genotyped in 5 Sicilian goat breeds to 1) identify casein haplotypes present in the Argentata dell'Etna, Girgentana, Messinese, Derivata di Siria, and Maltese goat breeds; and 2) describe the structure of the Sicilian goat breeds based on casein haplotypes and allele frequencies. In a sample of 540 dairy goats, 67 different haplotypes with frequency >or=0.01 and 27 with frequency >or=0.03 were observed. The most common CSN1S1-CSN2-CSN1S2-CSN3 haplotype for Derivata di Siria and Maltese was FCFB (0.17 and 0.22, respectively), whereas for Argentata dell'Etna, Girgenta…
Molecular analysis suggests that recent Citrus tristeza virus outbreaks in Italy were originated by at least two independent introductions
2005
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) is the causal agent of the most important virus disease of citrus. Numerous CTV isolates differing in biological and molecular characteristics have been reported worldwide. Recently, CTV was detected in Italy in several citrus crops from three separate areas: (1) Cassibile, province of Syracuse; (2) Massafra, province of Taranto; and (3) Belpasso, province of Catania. CTV isolates from Massafra and Cassibile were mild, whereas isolates from Belpasso induced severe symptoms. To study the genetic variation of CTV populations of these areas, 150 samples per area were examined by single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and nucleotide sequence analysis of CTV g…
Seasonal Variation of Ralstonia solanacearum Biovar 2 Populations in a Spanish River: Recovery of Stressed Cells at Low Temperatures
2005
ABSTRACT The presence of Ralstonia solanacearum biovar 2 in the watercourses of European countries is increasing, but little is known about its ecology in aquatic habitats. The detection of this pathogen in 2000 in one Spanish river led us to study its population density at different locations on the river over a period of 3 years. During 2000 and 2001, the pathogen was recovered at low densities (10 to 80 CFU/ml) by direct plating on modified SMSA agar from water samples at 14°C or higher, but its isolation was usually unsuccessful at temperatures below 9°C. To monitor the pathogen's abundance in winter, we used two liquid selective media for enrichment (at 29 and 35°C) and compared them b…
Ecological, morphological and genetic characterization of sympatric Haemonchus spp. parasites of domestic ruminants in Mauritania
1995
SUMMARYThe 4 species of ruminants (dromedary, zebu cattle, sheep and goat) in arid areas of Mauritania harboured Haemonchus spp. as the most frequent internal parasite. This was a rare situation where the 3 putative species, H. longistipes (dromedary), H. placet (zebu cattle) and H. contortus (sheep and goat) occurred sympatrically. The study was undertaken on hosts slaughtered at the Nouakchott abattoir, on the basis of monthly collection of worms. The environment was very unfavourable to H. placei and unfavourable to H. contortus, as intensity of infection remained low throughout the year, whereas infection in the dromedary was 10 to 20-fold higher. The survival strategies during the long…
Genetic relatedness among environmental, clinical, and diseased-eel Vibrio vulnificus isolates from different geographic regions by ribotyping and ra…
1998
ABSTRACT Genetic relationships among 132 strains of Vibrio vulnificus (clinical, environmental, and diseased-eel isolates from different geographic origins, as well as seawater and shellfish isolates from the western Mediterranean coast, including reference strains) were analyzed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) PCR. Results were validated by ribotyping. For ribotyping, DNAs were digested with Kpn I and hybridized with an oligonucleotide probe complementary to a highly conserved sequence in the 23S rRNA gene. Random amplification of DNA was performed with M13 and T3 universal primers. The comparison between ribotyping and RAPD PCR revealed an overall agreement regarding the high l…
The effect of climate on Burgundy vintage quality rankings.
2019
Aim: Based on consensus rankings from prominent rating authorities, we examined the importance of a suite of climatic variables, organized by winegrape phenological stage, in distinguishing between high- and low-ranked vintages in Burgundy.Methods and Results: Vintage ratings of Burgundy wines acquired from 12 sources were evaluated to develop consensus rankings for red and white wines from 1961–2015. Climate variables (air temperature, precipitation, degree-day accumulations, etc.) were organized by mean phenological stage and compared between good and poor vintages using Mann-Whitney U tests and multivariate stepwise discriminant function analysis. High temperatures, particularly during t…
In-Depth Characterization of Viral Isolates from Plasma and Cells Compared with Plasma Circulating Quasispecies in Early HIV-1 Infection
2012
Background The use of in vitro models to unravel the phenotypic characteristics of circulating viral variants is key to understanding HIV-1 pathogenesis but limited by the availability of primary viral isolates from biological samples. However, overall in vivo genetic variability of HIV-1 within a subject may not be reflected in the viable viral population obtained after isolation. Although several studies have tried to determine whether viral populations expanded in vitro are representative of in vivo findings, the answer remains unclear due to the reduced number of clonal sequences analyzed or samples compared. In order to overcome previous experimental limitations, here we applied Deep P…
Signal sequences modulate the immunogenic performance of human hepatitis C virus E2 gene
2005
Abstract Envelope protein E2 of human hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an attractive component of a prototype HCV vaccine. Delivered by DNA immunogens, E2 evokes specific immune response of Th1-type, failing to induce either considerable antibody production, or T-helper cell proliferation. We aimed at modulating the immunogenic performance of E2 gene by changing the mode of protein expression in eukaryotic cells. Plasmids were constructed encoding full-length E2 and nonstructural protein 1 (p7) fused to either 13 or 38 C-terminal amino acids (aa) of HCV E1 that contain second hydrophobic segment of E1 stop-transfer signal, or a complete E1 stop-transfer signal with duplicated second hydrophobic s…