The emergence of genetics from Festetics’ sheep through Mendel’s peas to Bateson’s chickens

It is now common knowledge- but also a misbelief- that in 1905 William Bateson coined the term ` genetics' for the first time in his letter to Adam Sedgwick. This important term was already formulated 81 years ago in a paper written by a sheep- breeding noble called Imre ( Emmerich) Festetics, who still remains somewhat mysterious even today. The articles written by Festetics summarized the results of a series of lasting and elegant breeding experiments he had conducted on his own property. Selecting the best rams, Festetics had painstakingly crossed and backcrossed his sheep to reach betterwool quality. These experiments later turned out to reveal a better understanding of inheritance outlining genetics as a new branch of natural sciences.Peer reviewe

Nuclear ribosomal spacer regions in plant phylogenetics : problems and prospects

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Plastid trnF pseudogenes are present in Jaltomata, the sister genus of Solanum (Solanaceae) : molecular evolution of tandemly repeated structural mutations

Extensive gene duplication arranged in a tandem array is rare in the plastome of embryophytes. Interestingly, we found pseudogene copies of the trnF gene in the genus Jaltomata, the sister genus of Solanum where such gene duplication has been previously reported. In each Jaltomata sequence available we found two pseudogene copies in close 5’-proximity to the original functional gene. The size of each pseudogene copy ranged between 17 and 48 bp and the anticodon domain was identified as the most conserved element. A common ATT(G)n motif is particularly interesting and its modifications were found to border the 3’ of the duplicated regions. Other motifs were partial residues, or entire parts of the T- and D-domains, and both domains proved to be variable in length among the pseudogenes identified. The residues of the 3’ and 5’ acceptor stem were not found among the copies. We further compared the newly discovered copies of Jaltomata with those ones previously described from Solanum and inferred phylogenetic relationships of the copies aligned. The evolution of Solanum copies, in contrast to Jaltomata, is hard to explain as resulting only in parsimonious changes since reticulate evolutionary patterns were detected among the copies. The dynamic evolutionary patterns of Solanum might be explained by possible inter- or intrachromosomal recombination.Peer reviewe

Dataset on the use of MGIDI index in screening drought-tolerant wild wheat accessions at the early growth stage

The dataset herein indicated the novelty of the article entitled “Dataset on the use of MGIDI in screening drought-tolerant wild wheat accessions at the early growth stage”. Data were gathered during 2018-2019 on a set of wild wheat germplasm under two control and water deficit stress conditions. One hundred and forty-six accessions belonging to Ae. tauschii, Ae. cylindrica, and Ae. crassa were assessed under optimal glasshouse conditions to screen the drought-tolerant samples at the early growth stage. Nine drought tolerance and susceptibility indices along with the multi-trait genotype-ideotype distance index (MGIDI) were used to visualize the dataset. The obtained data can highlight the potential of the MGIDI index in accelerating screening of a large number of plant materials using multiple traits or selection indices in crop breeding programs, especially at the early growth stage.Peer reviewe

Imre Festetics and the Sheep Breeders’ Society of Moravia: Mendel’s Forgotten “Research Network”

Contemporary science thrives on collaborative networks, but these can also be found elsewhere in the history of science in unexpected places. When Mendel turned his attention to inheritance in peas he was not isolated monk, but rather the latest in a line of Moravian researchers and agriculturalists who had been thinking about inheritance for half a century. Many of the principles of inheritance had already been sketched out by Imre Festetics, a Hungarian sheep breeder active in Brno. Festetics, however, was ultimately hindered by the complex nature of his study traits, aspects of wool quality that we now know to be polygenic. Whether or not Mendel was aware of Festetics’ ideas, both men were products of the same vibrant milieu in 19th century Moravia that combined theory and agricultural practice to eventually uncover the rules of inheritance.Peer reviewe

A dataset on multi-trait selection approaches for screening desirable wild relatives of wheat

Wild relatives of common wheat are an extraordinary source of tolerance to various environmental stresses. The dataset herein presents the effect of water-deficit stress on a core collection of landraces and wild relatives of wheat (including 180 samples belonging to four Triticum and eight Aegilops species [T. boeoticum Bioss., T. urartu Gandilyan., T. durum Def., T. aestivum L., Ae. speltoides Tausch., Ae. tauschii Coss., Ae. caudata L., Ae. umbellulata Zhuk., Ae. neglecta L., Ae. cylindrica Host., Ae. crassa Boiss., and Ae. triuncialis]) in terms of several physiological traits, root and shoot biomasses, and features of root system architecture (RSA). All genetic materials were subjected to water-stress treatment using a pot experiment under greenhouse conditions. To screen the most tolerant accessions, three selection indices, such as Smith and Hazel (SH), factor analysis and ideotype‐design (FAI), and the multi-trait genotype-ideotype distance index (MGIDI) were computed. The obtained data can highlight the role of some features of RSA in increasing water-deficit tolerance in some wild relatives of wheat. Moreover, the use of selection indices in the early stage of growth can be highlighted for future research.Peer reviewe

To network or not to network, that is the question

The evolutionary history of a set of taxa usually assumes a tree, but naturally phylogenies that involve reticulations cannot be described with a tree. Phylogenetic networks hold the potential to explore these interesting and previously undetected signals in phylogenetic analysis. Largely based on the conflicting signals in datasets, a growing interest in phylogenetic networks has developed. These methods allow the presentation of non-treelike evolutionary histories. Recently, several methods and excellent applications have been developed to reconstruct network-like evolutionary events. Short-comings of applied algorithms have also been described. Based on these findings future prospects can be summarized for phylogenetic analyses.Peer reviewe

The Festetics Mystery : The History of Genetics and the Forgotten Legacy of Emmerich Festetics

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