The transition from vegetative to reproductive phase, flowering per se, floral organ development, panicle structure and morphology, meiosis, pollination and fertilization, cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and fertility restoration, and grain development are the main reproductive traits. Unlocking their genetic insights will enable plant breeders to manipulate these traits in cereal germplasm en...

A crossbreeding experiment was carried out between two Egyptian strains of chickens namely Mandarah (MM) and ElSalam (SS). The two purebred strains and their reciprocal crosses (MS and SM) were used to estimate the effect of crossing on egg laying and egg quality parameters, direct additive and maternal additive effects as well as heterosis and direct heterosis percentages for studied traits. R...

Phenology has a profound effect on adaptation and productivity of crops. The impact of phenology on tillering and fertility traits of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum Desf.) was evaluated with the aim of specifying which group of flowering genes (Vrn, Ppd, or eps) was involved in their control. A recombinant inbred line population was grown under four contrasting conditions of ver...

Herd fertility is a key factor for the sustainability of cattle farming. However, since the 1980s, fertility in dairy cattle has steadily decreased and has become one of the main causes of culling and cow replacement in developed countries (Lucy, 2001; Barbat et al., 2010). Many studies have been performed in the last decades to investigate the genetic bases of this decline, considering the rep...

Studies of laboratory organisms have suggested that parental age affects the genetic variance of offspring traits. This effect can engender age-specific variance in genetic contributions to evolutionary change in heritable traits under directional selection, particularly in age-structured populations. Using long-term population data of the blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii), we tested whether ge...

Introduction: To most in this audience, having a veterinary practice dealing with problems associated with reproduction is undoubtedly fun, profitable and rewarding. However, reproductive problems can also be most frustrating, often testing the limits of our knowledge and our patience. From personal experience, I can also say the same for research in reproductive physiology, particularly where ...

The current study investigated the effect of short-term selection for four week body weight (BW) on performance of divergent lines of Japanese quail and their crosses. The mean of BW at hatching time, one, two, three and four week oldand BW at sexual maturity time, age at sexual maturity, number of eggs (from 50 to 100 days old), mean of egg weight, percentage of fertility and hatchability in e...