A developing country perspective on recent developments in animal breeders and intellectual property rights

Animal breeding and genetics have changed markedly, resembling those that have already taken place in the plant sector. These changes are going to be larger with sequenced genomes, transgenic livestock and cloned animals. Animal scientists have now started to protect their intellectual property and these protective measures have alarmed other scientists and the public. The challenge for developing countries is to guard against bio-piracy of their indigenous animal genetic resources, and to safeguard technologies that they have been using. A second concern is the export of genetic material to countries that did not ratify the Convention on Biodiversity. The first operational conflict resulted from a patent on a “Method of Bovine Herd Management”. The patent claims rights to a practice that has been public knowledge for nearly 100 years. The novel idea within the patent is the specific mathematical model and procedures developed for analysis of test day yields. Monsanto has recently applied for a series of patents on pig breeding in some 160 countries, whereas researchers in New Zealand and Australia obtained a patent for the Booroola gene. The east African Boran cattle breed has also been patented in Australia. Currently developing countries risk losing their intellectual property on indigenous livestock while research institutions require a stable regulatory framework in which to operate. There should be a balance between the needs of developed and developing countries and interim measures should be put in place in anticipation of the development of a legal framework on animal genetic resources. Keywords: keyword; keyword; keyword South African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 36 (5) 2006: pp.22-2

The use of a cluster analysis in across herd genetic evaluation for beef cattle

To investigate the possibility of a genotype x environment interaction in Bonsmara cattle, a cluster analysis was performed on weaning weight records of 72 811 Bonsmara calves, the progeny of 1 434 sires and 24 186 dams in 35 herds. The following environmental factors were used to classify herds into clusters: solution for herd effects corrected for year-season, sex, age of dam and age at weaning (indicative of the management level in a herd), herd size and average temperature and rainfall. Two different genetic analyses were performed. Breeding values obtained in a univariate analysis were used as basis for comparison to breeding values obtained from a multivariate analysis where weaning weight in each cluster was considered as a separate trait. Direct additive, maternal additive, permanent maternal environment and Herd-Year-Season x Sire (HYSxS) interaction were included as random effects in both analyses. The direct genetic correlations between the clusters varied between 0.51 and 1.00. The low correlation estimates between some of the clusters indicate a possible genotype x environment interaction. Substantial reranking of sires between clusters did occur. However, further research is needed to identify and prioritize variables that can describe the genetics, management and climate of each herd more accurately. Keywords: Bonsmara cattle, Genotype by environment interaction, weaning weightSouth African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 38 (1) 2008: pp. 51-5

Superhydrophilic Functionalization of Microfiltration Ceramic Membranes Enables Separation of Hydrocarbons from Frac and Produced Water

The environmental impact of shale oil and gas production by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is of increasing concern. The biggest potential source of environmental contamination is flowback and produced water, which is highly contaminated with hydrocarbons, bacteria and particulates, meaning that traditional membranes are readily fouled. We show the chemical functionalisation of alumina ceramic microfiltration membranes (0.22 μm pore size) with cysteic acid creates a superhydrophilic surface, allowing for separation of hydrocarbons from frac and produced waters without fouling. The single pass rejection coefficients was >90% for all samples. The separation of hydrocarbons from water when the former have hydrodynamic diameters smaller than the pore size of the membrane is due to the zwitter ionically charged superhydrophilic pore surface. Membrane fouling is essentially eliminated, while a specific flux is obtained at a lower pressure (<2 bar) than that required achieving the same flux for the untreated membrane (4–8 bar)

Corrigendum:Local and macroscopic electrostatic interactions in single α-helices

The non-covalent forces that stabilise protein structures are not fully understood. One way to address this is to study equilibria between unfolded states and α-helices in peptides. For these, electrostatic forces are believed to contribute, including interactions between: side chains; the backbone and side chains; and side chains and the helix macrodipole. Here we probe these experimentally using designed peptides. We find that both terminal backbone-side chain and certain side chain-side chain interactions (i.e., local effects between proximal charges, or interatomic contacts) contribute much more to helix stability than side chain-helix macrodipole electrostatics, which are believed to operate at larger distances. This has implications for current descriptions of helix stability, understanding protein folding, and the refinement of force fields for biomolecular modelling and simulations. In addition, it sheds light on the stability of rod-like structures formed by single α-helices that are common in natural proteins including non-muscle myosins

Candidate Gene Screen in the Red Flour Beetle Tribolium Reveals Six3 as Ancient Regulator of Anterior Median Head and Central Complex Development

Several highly conserved genes play a role in anterior neural plate patterning of vertebrates and in head and brain patterning of insects. However, head involution in Drosophila has impeded a systematic identification of genes required for insect head formation. Therefore, we use the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum in order to comprehensively test the function of orthologs of vertebrate neural plate patterning genes for a function in insect head development. RNAi analysis reveals that most of these genes are indeed required for insect head capsule patterning, and we also identified several genes that had not been implicated in this process before. Furthermore, we show that Tc-six3/optix acts upstream of Tc-wingless, Tc-orthodenticle1, and Tc-eyeless to control anterior median development. Finally, we demonstrate that Tc-six3/optix is the first gene known to be required for the embryonic formation of the central complex, a midline-spanning brain part connected to the neuroendocrine pars intercerebralis. These functions are very likely conserved among bilaterians since vertebrate six3 is required for neuroendocrine and median brain development with certain mutations leading to holoprosencephaly

ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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Comparative genomic analysis of innate immunity reveals novel and conserved components in crustacean food crop species

Abstract Background Growing global demands for crustacean food crop species have driven large investments in aquaculture research worldwide. However, large-scale production is susceptible to pathogen-mediated destruction particularly in developing economies. Thus, a thorough understanding of the immune system components of food crop species is imperative for research to combat pathogens. Results Through a comparative genomics approach utilising extant data from 55 species, we describe the innate immune system of the class Malacostraca, which includes all food crop species. We identify 7407 malacostracan genes from 39 gene families implicated in different aspects of host defence and demonstrate dynamic evolution of innate immunity components within this group. Malacostracans have achieved flexibility in recognising infectious agents through divergent evolution and expansion of pathogen recognition receptors genes. Antiviral RNAi, Toll and JAK-STAT signal transduction pathways have remained conserved within Malacostraca, although the Imd pathway appears to lack several key components. Immune effectors such as the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have unique evolutionary profiles, with many malacostracan AMPs not found in other arthropods. Lastly, we describe four putative novel immune gene families, potentially representing important evolutionary novelties of the malacostracan immune system. Conclusion Our analyses across the broader Malacostraca have allowed us to not only draw analogies with other arthropods but also to identify evolutionary novelties in immune modulation components and form strong hypotheses as to when key pathways have evolved or diverged. This will serve as a key resource for future immunology research in crustacean food crops

Maximum herd efficiency in meat production IV. Crossbred reproduction and constant slaughter mass

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