DNA variation from randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) (1, 2) has recently been helpful in addressing a wide range of evolutionary problems including the determination of paternity and maternity (3). It has been greeted with particular enthusiasm because it is fast, technically easy and requires little material (4). By using single 10 base primers of arbitrary sequences to amplify DNA wit...

Estimating seed and pollen gene flow in plants on the basis of samples of naturally regenerated seedlings can provide much needed information about "realized gene flow," but seems to be one of the greatest challenges in plant population biology. Traditional parentage methods, because of their inability to discriminate between male and female parentage of seedlings, unless supported by uniparent...

BACKGROUND Nut-bearing trees, including oaks (Quercus spp.), are considered to be highly dispersal limited, leading to concerns about their ability to colonize new sites or migrate in response to climate change. However, estimating seed dispersal is challenging in species that are secondarily dispersed by animals, and differences in disperser abundance or behavior could lead to large spatio-tem...

Accurate pedigree information is critical to animal breeding systems to ensure the highest rate of genetic gain and management of inbreeding. The abundance of available genomic data, together with development of high throughput genotyping platforms, means that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are now the DNA marker of choice for genomic selection studies. Furthermore the superior qualitie...

THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN GENETICS, PROCREATIVE INTENT, AND PARENTAL CONDUCT IN DETERMINING LEGAL PARENTAGE Deborah Wald, Esq., San Francisco, U.S.A. Our communities are increasingly populated with children for whom legal parentage is unclear. The three primary factors influencing legislative and judicial determinations of legal parentage tend to be: genetics, procreative intent, and parental condu...

T H E requirement for research to determine some of the general and specific genetic effects of X irradiation to consecutive generations of mammals was stressed by The UNITED NATIONS CIENTIFIC OMMITTEE ON THE EFFECTS OF ATOMIC RADIATION (1958). In response to this need a program was started to investigate possible nonspecific effects of X irradiation to consecutive generations of male mice. Thi...

The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) can often lead to environmental differences between MPAs and fishing zones. To determine the effects on marine dispersal of environmental dissimilarity between an MPA and fishing zone, we examined the abundance and recruitment patterns of two anemonefishes (Amphiprion frenatus and A. perideraion) that inhabit sea anemones in different managemen...