Genetic Structure Analysis of the Pura Raza Español Horse Population through Partial Inbreeding Coefficient Estimation

The aim of this work was to analyze genetic parameters such as the inbreeding coe cient (F), relatedness coe cient (AR) and partial inbreeding coe cient (Fij) of the whole PRE population, and the ancestors which account for 50% of the total genetic variability of the current population, from genealogical information. The average F of the whole PRE population (328,706 animals) has decreased from 8.45% to 7.51% in the least 20 years. The Fij was estimated for the whole PRE population, resulting in a database of 58,772,533 records containing one record for each Fij that each animal receives from a certain common ancestor (CA). A total of 10,244 CAs contributed to the Fij with an average of 5370 descendants, with each descendant having an average of 170 CAs. Over the generations, the number of CAs has increased, while the proportion of Fij by each one has decreased. In addition, the contributions of the more influential ancestors have changed. The increased census, the limited use of artificial insemination and our increased knowledge about inbreeding depression and the animals’ breeding values allow breeders to select horses more for their functionality and conformation than for their pedigree reputation, which is the cause of all these changes

Determinación espectrofotométrica y espectrofluorimétrica de oro por un proceso de extracción. Determinación de oro en plomos

Tetrachloroauric acid forms with phenosafranine (C.I.50200) an ionpair which is extractable in butyl acetate. As a consequence new spectrophotometric éind spectrofluorimetric methods for gold determination are developed. With 5 ml of organic layer and 25 ml for the aqueous phase, 0,3 M in hydrochloric acid, 2.0 M in sodium chloride and 10-4 M in phenosafranine, Beer's law is obeyed at 527 nm in the range 1,25-37,5 micrograms of gold. The sensitivity can be enhaced measuring the fluorescence i,„xc=521, Xem 547 nm) of the organic phase diluted five times with acetone and even 0,125 µg of gold can be determined. The methods have been applied to the determination of gold (2-10 p.p.m.) in lead with good analytical results.El anión tetracloroaurato forma con la fenosafranina (I. C. 50200) un compuesto de asociación iónica extraíble en acetato de butilo, lo que nos ha permitido proponer nuevos métodos, espectrofotométrico y espectrofluorimétrico, para la determinación de oro. Para 5 ml de fase orgánica y 25 ml de fase acuosa, en medio 0,3 M en HCl, 2,0 M en NaCl y 10-4 M en fenosafranina la ley de Beer se cumple entre 1,25 y 37,5 µg de oro a 527 nm. La sensibilidad puede aumentarse midiendo la fluorescencia (λexe — 521 nm, λexe = 547 nm) de la capa orgánica diluida cinco veces con acetona, pudiendo determinarse de esta manera incluso 0,125 µg de oro. Los métodos han sido aplicados a la determinación de oro (2-10 p.p.m.) en plomo con excelentes resultados analíticos

Survey of Risk Factors and Genetic Characterization of Ewe Neck in a World Population of Pura Raza Español Horses

Ewe Neck is a relatively common morphological defect in Pura Raza Español (PRE) horses and other Baroque type horse breeds, which adversely affects the breeding industry; (1) objectives: to establish the within-breed prevalence, possible associated factors, and heritability of Ewe Neck in PRE horses; (2) methods: the database included evaluations of 35,267 PRE horses. The Ewe Neck defect, 16 morphological traits, and 4 body indices were recorded. A Bayesian genetic animal model included the following systematic effects: sex, age, coat color, geographical area of the stud, and birth stud size were used; (3) results: in this PRE population, a total of 27.12% was affected. All the risk factors studied were significantly associated with the Ewe Neck score. The heritability coefficient for Ewe Neck score ranged from 0.23 to 0.34. Morphological traits (height at chest, length of back, head-neck junction, and bottom neck-body junction) and the indices (head and thoracic index) were those most closely related with the appearance of Ewe Neck; (4) conclusions: Ewe Neck is a relatively frequent defect in PRE horses, associated with risk factors and other morphological traits, with a moderate level of heritability. Breeding to select against this condition may therefore be beneficial in this breed

FoxK1 is required for ectodermal cell differentiation during planarian regeneration

Forkhead box (Fox) genes belong to the 'winged helix' transcription factor superfamily. The function of some Fox genes is well known, such as the role of foxO in controlling metabolism and longevity and foxA in controlling differentiation of endodermal tissues. However, the role of some Fox factors is not yet well characterized. Such is the case of FoxK genes, which are mainly studied in mammals and have been implicated in diverse processes including cell proliferation, tissue differentiation and carcinogenesis. Planarians are free-living flatworms, whose importance in biomedical research lies in their regeneration capacity. Planarians possess a wide population of pluripotent adult stem cells, called neoblasts, which allow them to regenerate any body part after injury. In a recent study, we identified three foxK paralogs in the genome of Schmidtea mediterranea. In this study, we demonstrate that foxK1 inhibition prevents regeneration of the ectodermal tissues, including the nervous system and the epidermis. These results correlate with foxK1 expression in neoblasts and in neural progenitors. Although the triggering of wound genes expression, polarity reestablishment and proliferation was not affected after foxK1 silencing, the apoptotic response was decreased. Altogether, these results suggest that foxK1 would be required for differentiation and maintenance of ectodermal tissues

Avaluació acreditativa del “Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer (CLAD)” als ensenyaments d’enginyeries TICs

L’entorn Labview és un llenguatge de programació gràfic molt intuïtiu i potser el més estès en el món industrial. El coneixement que els estudiants tenen d’aquest entorn de programació Labview és pobre. L’objectiu essencial en el projecte va ser aconseguir que els estudiants disposessin dels coneixements i les competències professionals en la utilització de l’entorn Labview en l’àmbit de les enginyeries TICs. Per tal d’assolir l’objectiu vàrem programar els continguts de programació en l’entorn Labview en el programa acadèmic de les titulacions de Grau d’Enginyeria Electronica de Telecomunicació, Grau d’Enginyeria Biomèdica i Grau de Física. Una part d’aquests continguts en assignatures obligatòries i una altra part en una assignatura optativa. Finalitzada aquesta formació, National Instruments ofereix als estudiants que han seguit el programa, que puguin passar l’examen CLAD i habilitar-se com a programador oficial Labview. Aquest programa s’ha desenvolupat durant 2 anys i dues promocions d’estudiants l’han pogut seguir. Els estudiants que han aconseguit la fita de ser acreditats CLAD és aproximadament el 50% dels que s’han presentat. Aquesta tassa d’èxit és l’habitual en la majoria dels països europeus en els que s’ha posat en pràctica aquestes iniciatives. L’empresa National Instruments està molt satisfeta d’aquesta iniciativa i ha mostrat molt interès en continuar col·laborant amb nosaltres

Endometrial gene expression profile of pregnant sows with extreme phenotypes for reproductive efficiency

Prolificacy can directly impact porcine profitability, but large genetic variation and low heritability have been found regarding litter size among porcine breeds. To identify key differences in gene expression associated to swine reproductive efficiency, we performed a transcriptome analysis of sows' endometrium from an Iberian x Meishan F2 population at day 30-32 of gestation, classified according to their estimated breeding value (EBV) as high (H, EBV > 0) and low (L, EBV < 0) prolificacy phenotypes. For each sample, mRNA and small RNA libraries were RNA-sequenced, identifying 141 genes and 10 miRNAs differentially expressed between H and L groups. We selected four miRNAs based on their role in reproduction, and five genes displaying the highest differences and a positive mapping into known reproductive QTLs for RT-qPCR validation on the whole extreme population. Significant differences were validated for genes: PTGS2 (p = 0.03; H/L ratio = 3.50), PTHLH (p = 0.03; H/L ratio = 3.69), MMP8 (p = 0.01; H/L ratio = 4.41) and SCNN1G (p = 0.04; H/L ratio = 3.42). Although selected miRNAs showed similar expression levels between H and L groups, significant correlation was found between the expression level of ssc-miR-133a (p < 0.01) and ssc-miR-92a (p < 0.01) and validated genes. These results provide a better understanding of the genetic architecture of prolificacy-related traits and embryo implantation failure in pigs

The role of viral and host microRNAs in the Aujeszky's disease virus during the infection process

Porcine production is a primary market in the world economy. Controlling swine diseases in the farm is essential in order to achieve the sector necessities. Aujeszky's disease is a viral condition affecting pigs and is endemic in many countries of the world, causing important economic losses in the swine industry. microRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs which modulates gene expression in animals, plants and viruses. With the aim of understanding miRNA roles during the Aujeszky's disease virus [ADV] (also known as suid herpesvirus type 1 [SuHV-1]) infection, the expression profiles of host and viral miRNAs were determined through deep sequencing in SuHV-1 infected porcine cell line (PK-15) and in an animal experimental SuHV-1 infection with virulent (NIA-3) and attenuated (Begonia) strains. In the in vivo approach miR-206, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-378 presented differential expression between virus strains infection. In the in vitro approach, most miRNAs were down-regulated in infected groups. miR-92a and miR-92b-3p were up-regulated in Begonia infected samples. Functional analysis of all this over expressed miRNAs during the infection revealed their association in pathways related to viral infection processes and immune response. Furthermore, 8 viral miRNAs were detected by stem loop RT-qPCR in both in vitro and in vivo approaches, presenting a gene regulatory network affecting 59 viral genes. Most described viral miRNAs were related to Large Latency Transcript (LLT) and to viral transcription activators EP0 and IE180, and also to regulatory genes regarding their important roles in the host-pathogen interaction during viral infection

Remote ischemic preconditioning ameliorates anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity and preserves mitochondrial integrity

Aims: Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity (AIC) is a serious adverse effect among cancer patients. A central mechanism of AIC is irreversible mitochondrial damage. Despite major efforts, there are currently no effective therapies able to prevent AIC. Methods and results: Forty Large-White pigs were included. In Study 1, 20 pigs were randomized 1:1 to remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC, 3 cycles of 5 min leg ischaemia followed by 5 min reperfusion) or no pretreatment. RIPC was performed immediately before each intracoronary doxorubicin injections (0.45 mg/kg) given at Weeks 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8. A group of 10 pigs with no exposure to doxorubicin served as healthy controls. Pigs underwent serial cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) exams at baseline and at Weeks 6, 8, 12, and 16, being sacrifice after that. In Study 2, 10 new pigs received 3 doxorubicin injections (with/out preceding RIPC) and were sacrificed at week 6. In Study 1, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) depression was blunted animals receiving RIPC before doxorubicin (RIPC-Doxo), which had a significantly higher LVEF at Week 16 than doxorubicin treated pigs that received no pretreatment (Untreated-Doxo) (41.5 ± 9.1% vs. 32.5 ± 8.7%, P = 0.04). It was mainly due to conserved regional contractile function. In Study 2, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at Week 6 showed fragmented mitochondria with severe morphological abnormalities in Untreated-Doxo pigs, together with upregulation of fission and autophagy proteins. At the end of the 16-week Study 1 protocol, TEM revealed overt mitochondrial fragmentation with structural fragmentation in Untreated-Doxo pigs, whereas interstitial fibrosis was less severe in RIPC+Doxo pigs. Conclusion: In a translatable large-animal model of AIC, RIPC applied immediately before each doxorubicin injection resulted in preserved cardiac contractility with significantly higher long-term LVEF and less cardiac fibrosis. RIPC prevented mitochondrial fragmentation and dysregulated autophagy from AIC early stages. RIPC is a promising intervention for testing in clinical trials in AIC.Fil: Galán Arriola, Carlos. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red.; EspañaFil: Villena Gutiérrez, Rocio. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red.; EspañaFil: Higuero Verdejo, María I.. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares; EspañaFil: Díaz Rengifo, Iván A.. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares; EspañaFil: Pizarro, Gonzalo. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red.; EspañaFil: López, Gonzalo J.. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares; EspañaFil: de Molina Iracheta, Antonio. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares; EspañaFil: Pérez Martínez, Claudia. Universidad de Leon. Facultad de Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: García, Rodrigo Damián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: González Calle, David. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red.; EspañaFil: Lobo, Manuel. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red.; EspañaFil: Sánchez, Pedro L.. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red.; EspañaFil: Oliver, Eduardo. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red.; EspañaFil: Córdoba, Raúl. Hospital Fundacion Jimenez Diaz; EspañaFil: Fuster, Valentin. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares; EspañaFil: Sánchez González, Javier. No especifíca;Fil: Ibanez, Borja. Centro de Investigacion Biomedica En Red.; Españ