Many studies show agreement within and between populations and cultures for general judgments of facial attractiveness. Studies that have examined the attractiveness of specific traits have also highlighted cross-cultural differences for factors such as symmetry, averageness, and masculinity. One trait that should be preferred across cultures is heterozygosity. Indeed, several studies suggest t...

Under sexual selection, mate preferences can evolve for traits advertising fitness benefits. Observed mating patterns (mate choice) are often assumed to represent preference, even though they result from the interaction between preference, sampling strategy and environmental factors. Correlating fitness with mate choice instead of preference will therefore lead to confounded conclusions about t...

Deletions of loci on chromosome lip have been found frequently in several malignant tumors including gliomas, suggesting the presence of tumor suppressor genes. We analyzed 38 gliomas [26 malignant gliomas (grades III and IV) and 12 less malignant gliomas (grades I and II)] for loss of heterozygosity using microsatellite sequences on lip as polymor phic markers. Loss of heterozygosity was found...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Development of microsatellite markers for the vulnerable forb Senecio macrocarpus was performed to begin an assessment of its population structure and breeding method to aid in the conservation of the species in Victoria, Australia. • METHODS AND RESULTS Fifteen microsatellite markers were developed for S. macrocarpus from 454 pyrosequencing. The markers wer...

For each of three species, quaking aspen, ponderosa pine, and lodgepole pine, we determined the relationships between a ranking of heterozygosity of individuals and measures of growth rate. Genetic variation was assayed by starch gel electrophoresis of enzymes. Growth rates were characterized by the mean, standard deviation, logarithm of the variance, and coefficient of variation of annual ring...

Using an enriched library method, seven polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated from the barley stem gall midge, Mayetiola hordei. Polymorphism at loci was surveyed on 57 individual midges collected on barley in Tunisia. Across loci, polymorphism ranged from two to six alleles per locus. The observed heterozygosity varied between 0.070 and 0.877. Based on the number of alleles detected an...

The realisation that heterozygosity can be heritable has recently generated some elegant research. However, none of this work has discussed the fact that when heterozygote advantage occurs, heterozygosity can be heritable, yet allele frequencies remain at equilibrium and do not evolve with time. From a quantitative genetic perspective this means the character is heritable, is under selection, y...

MiniSTR loci has demonstrated to be an effective approach to recover genetic information from degraded sample, due to the improved PCR efficiency of their reduced PCR product sizes. This study investigated the allele frequency of six miniSTR loci, D1S1677, D2S441, D4S2364, D10S1248, D14S1434 and D22S1045, in three Singapore populations. All loci showed a moderate degree of polymorphism with obs...

Karyotypic and molecular data indicate that genetic events involving the chromosome region 10q22-10qter may be related to tumorigenesis in malignant melanoma. To test this we analyzed 10 polymorphic microsatellite repeats in the region 10q22-qter, using a polymerase chain reaction-based assay for loss of heterozygosity and DNA isolated from normal and tumor tissue from 26 individuals with malig...

Inbreeding depression can have alarming impacts on threatened species with small population sizes. Assessing inbreeding has therefore become an important focus of conservation research. In this study, heterozygosity-fitness correlations (HFCs) were measured by genotyping 7 loci in 83 adult and 184 hatchling Lesser Antillean Iguanas, Iguana delicatissima, at a communal nesting site in Dominica t...