Statistical ecology comes of age

The desire to predict the consequences of global environmental change has been the driver towards more realistic models embracing the variability and uncertainties inherent in ecology. Statistical ecology has gelled over the past decade as a discipline that moves away from describing patterns towards modelling the ecological processes that generate these patterns. Following the fourth International Statistical Ecology Conference (1-4 July 2014) in Montpellier, France, we analyse current trends in statistical ecology. Important advances in the analysis of individual movement, and in the modelling of population dynamics and species distributions, are made possible by the increasing use of hierarchical and hidden process models. Exciting research perspectives include the development of methods to interpret citizen science data and of efficient, flexible computational algorithms for model fitting. Statistical ecology has come of age: it now provides a general and mathematically rigorous framework linking ecological theory and empirical data.Peer reviewe

GWAS meta-analysis of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy implicates multiple hepatic genes and regulatory elements

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a pregnancy-specific liver disorder affecting 0.5–2% of pregnancies. The majority of cases present in the third trimester with pruritus, elevated serum bile acids and abnormal serum liver tests. ICP is associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including spontaneous preterm birth and stillbirth. Whilst rare mutations affecting hepatobiliary transporters contribute to the aetiology of ICP, the role of common genetic variation in ICP has not been systematically characterised to date. Here, we perform genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and meta-analyses for ICP across three studies including 1138 cases and 153,642 controls. Eleven loci achieve genome-wide significance and have been further investigated and fine-mapped using functional genomics approaches. Our results pinpoint common sequence variation in liver-enriched genes and liver-specific cis-regulatory elements as contributing mechanisms to ICP susceptibility

The influence of the rose and pea comb genes on reproductive performance in the male fowl

Certain types of infertility found in various animal populations may be due to genetic causes. This type of lowered reproduction becomes increasingly important in the male as the use of artificial insemination extends to more species. The extensive use of affected males tends to increase the frequency of these deleterious alleles in a population and thus lower the rate of reproduction of the species. In poultry, poor reproductive performance is a commercially important problem in broiler and turkey production. Any information, either genetic or physiological in nature, which might help correct this problem should be met with prompt attention.f

The influence of the rose and pea comb genes on reproductive performance in the male fowl.

Certain types of infertility found in various animal populations may be due to genetic causes. This type of lowered reproduction becomes increasingly important in the male as the use of artificial insemination extends to more species. The extensive use of affected males tends to increase the frequency of these deleterious alleles in a population and thus lower the rate of reproduction of the species. [...