An F2 Japanese quail population was developed by crossing two strains (wild and white) to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) for performance and carcass traits. A total of 472 F2 birds were reared and slaughtered at 42 days of age. Performance and carcass traits were measured on all of the F2 individuals. Parental (P0), F1 and F2 individuals were genotyped with 3 microsatellites from quail chrom...

Genetic mapping studies of quantitative traits typically focus on detecting loci that contribute additively to trait variation. Genetic interactions are often proposed as a contributing factor to trait variation, but the relative contribution of interactions to trait variation is a subject of debate. Here we use a very large cross between two yeast strains to accurately estimate the fraction of...

The Oak genus (Quercus L.) is one of the most important genera of beach family (Fagaceae) that has ecological and economical importance. Chestnutleaf oak (Quercus castaneifolia C.A. Mey.) is native to Iran and distributed in Hyrcanian forests. Pure and mixed stands of this taxon have covered about 6.5 % of Hyrcanian forests. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of ecological factor...

Large structural variations (SVs) within genomes are more challenging to identify than smaller genetic variants but may substantially contribute to phenotypic diversity and evolution. We analyse the effects of SVs on gene expression, quantitative traits and intrinsic reproductive isolation in the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We establish a high-quality curated catalogue of SVs in the genome...

Seven New Zealand Holstein-Friesian families and two Jersey families, a total of 274 sires, were analyzed in a granddaughter design for marker-quantitative trait loci associations. For 17 nonproduction traits (management, size, and conformation traits), an across-family analysis was undertaken using multimarker regression procedures. Threshold levels were set empirically by permuting the data. ...

Invasive alien species can have serious adverse impacts on both the environment and the economy. Being able to predict the impacts of an alien species could assist in preventing or reducing these impacts. This study aimed to establish whether there are any life history traits consistently correlated with the impacts of alien birds across two continents, Europe and Australia, as a first step tow...

The ability of populations to undergo adaptive evolution depends on the presence of quantitative genetic variation for ecologically important traits. Although molecular measures are widely used as surrogates for quantitative genetic variation, there is controversy about the strength of the relationship between the two. To resolve this issue, we carried out a meta-analysis based on 71 datasets. ...

Discovering the mechanisms by which genetic variation influences phenotypes is integral to understanding life-history evolution. Models describing causal relationships among traits in a developmental hierarchy provide a functional basis for understanding the correlations often observed among life-history traits. In this paper, we evaluate a developmental network model of life-history traits bas...