the ovine melatonin receptor 1a (mtnr1a) and aromatase (cyp19) genes were structurally characterized and the association between their variants and reproductive and growth traits was studied in kurdi sheep at kurdi sheep breeding station located in shirvan, iran. the genomic dna was extracted by guanidine thiocyanate-silica gel method. polymerase chain reaction was carried out to amplify 824 bp...

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...

the aim of this study was using bayesian approach via gibbs sampling (gs) for estimating genetic parameters of production, reproduction and health traits in iranian holstein cows. data consisted of 320666 first- lactation records of holstein cows from 7696 sires and 260302 dams collected by the animal breeding center of iran from year 1991 to 2010. (co) variance components were estimated using ...

productive and reproductive traits have great importance in international dairy cattle breeding objectives. production, reproduction (days open and calving interval) and pedigree data of iranian holstein dairy cattles were collected between 2002 and 2012 from 47 herds in isfahan province. the data set consisted of 30179 records from 18837 registered iranianholstein dairy cattles. single trait r...

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BACKGROUND AND AIMS Species' habitat affinities along environmental gradients should be determined by a combination of physiological (hard) and morpho-anatomical (soft) traits. Using a gradient of soil water availability, we address three questions: How well can we predict habitat affinities from hard traits, from soft traits, and from a combination of the two? How well can we predict species' ...