Our goal is proposing an unbiased framework for gene expression analysis based on variable selection combined with a significance assessment step. We start by discussing the need of such a framework by illustrating the dramatic effect of a biased approach especially when the sample size is small. Then we describe our analysis protocol, based on two main ingredients. The first is a gene selectio...

The genetic change of the population mean of a quantitative trait is the outcome of the action of two antagonistic forces: artificial or natural selection and genetic drift. The latter may generate inbreeding depression and erosion of the genetic variance, both for production and fitness traits. Inbreeding changes are cumulative and inversely proportional to the effective population size. To ke...

Recent data indicate that several members of the Tec family of protein tyrosine kinases function in antigen receptor signal transduction. Txk, a Tec family protein tyrosine kinase, is expressed in both immature and mature T cells and in mast cells. By overexpressing Txk in T cells throughout development, we found that Txk specifically augments the phospholipase C (PLC)-gamma1-mediated calcium s...

Verticillium wilt (VW) is one of the important yield-limiting diseases for potato production. To develop resistant clones, the potential for early generation selection was studied using three basic selection methods, individual, family, and within family selection, for two clonal generations. A total of 152 clones were derived from four cross types (2x · 2x, 2x · 4x, 4x · 2x and 4x · 4x). Clone...

The display of courtship behavior has evolved in response to sexual selection driven by competition to obtain mates. Sexually dimorphic mate selection rituals are likely controlled at least in part by genes with sex-biased patterns of expression. In Drosophila melanogaster, male courtship behavior has been well described and consists of a series of stereotyped behaviors. The takeout gene is pre...

Cathepsin L family, an important cysteine protease found in lysosomes, is categorized into cathepsins B, F, H, K, L, S, and W in vertebrates. This categorization is based on their sequence alignment and traditional functional classification, but the evolutionary relationship of family members is unclear. This study determined the evolutionary relationship of cathepsin L family genes in vertebra...

The repertoire of TCR specificities is established by a selection process in the thymus, during which precursor survival and maturation is dictated by the nature of the TCR signals. The differences in signals that determine whether precursors will survive and mature or be induced to die remain poorly understood. Among the molecular effectors involved in executing the differentiation process ini...