The effect of selection for scrapie resistance on genetic variability in three endangered Spanish sheep breeds (Colmenareña, Mallorquina and Rubia de El Molar) was studied using two different criteria for quantifying contributions to genetic variability: (a) molecular coancestry or genetic identity; and (b) average number of alleles per locus or allelic richness. A total of 236 (81 Colmenareña,...

The genetic history of African cattle pastoralism is controversial and poorly understood. We reveal the genetic signatures of its origins, secondary movements, and differentiation through the study of 15 microsatellite loci in 50 indigenous cattle breeds spanning the present cattle distribution in Africa. The earliest cattle originated within the African continent, but Near East and European ge...

Improving yield is a major objective for cotton breeding schemes, and lint yield and its three component traits (boll number, boll weight and lint percentage) are complex traits controlled by multiple genes and various environments. Association mapping was performed to detect markers associated with these four traits using 651 simple sequence repeats (SSRs). A mixed linear model including epist...

This study characterized autochthonous pig breeds of Vietnam and compared them with breeds from other regions. A total of 343 animals were considered from 5 indigenous pig breeds of Vietnam (Muong Khuong, Co, Meo, Tap Na, and Mong Cai), 2 exotic breeds kept in Vietnam (Landrace and Yorkshire), 3 European commercial breeds (German Land-race, Piétrain, and Large White), the Chinese breed Meishan,...

This study used eight polymorphic microsatellite loci to examine the relative effects of social organization and dispersal on fine-scale genetic structure in an obligately cooperative breeding bird, the white-winged chough (Corcorax melanorhamphos). Using both individual-level and population-level analyses, it was found that the majority of chough groups consisted of close relatives and there w...

Acipenseriformes are composed of 25 sturgeon species and two paddlefish species distributed exclusively in the northern hemisphere. The Danube River and the Black Sea were originally inhabited by six sturgeon species but two are extinct and only four are still reproducing currently in the Lower Danube: Huso huso, Acipenser stellatus, A. gueldenstaedtii and A. ruthenus. Sturgeon species hybridiz...

Relationships between pedigree coefficients of inbreeding and molecular metrics are generally weak, suggesting that measures of heterozygosity estimated using microsatellites may be poor surrogates of genome-wide inbreeding. We compare three endangered species of gazelles (Gazella) with different degrees of threat in their natural habitats, for which captive breeding programmes exist. For G. do...

A recent study suggests that sex-specific dispersal rates can be quantitatively estimated on the basis of sex- and state-specific (pre- vs. postdispersal) F-statistics. In the present paper, we extend this approach to account for the hierarchical structure of natural populations, and we validate it through individual-based simulations. The model is applied to an empirical data set consisting of...

Giant tortoises, a prominent symbol of the Galápagos archipelago, illustrate the influence of geological history and natural selection on the diversification of organisms. Because of heavy human exploitation, 4 of the 15 known species (Geochelone spp.) have disappeared. Charles Darwin himself detailed the intense harvesting of one species, G. elephantopus, which once was endemic to the island o...

A collection of 238 eggplant breeding lines, heritage varieties and selections within local landraces provenanced from Asia and the Mediterranean Basin was phenotyped with respect to key plant and fruit traits, and genotyped using 24 microsatellite loci distributed uniformly throughout the genome. STRUCTURE analysis based on the genotypic data identified two major sub-groups, which to a large e...