Genetic analysis of the effects of heat stress before and after lambing on pre-weaning live weight in Spanish Merino lambs

Background: Heat stress (HS) is a major environmental effect on sheep production. Hereby, we estimated the genetic (co)variance component of HS on the pre-weaning performance of 19,022 Merino lambs by analysing the climatological index of temperature and relative humidity (recorded 30 days before lambing and after lambing) using transversal and longitudinal mixed linear models. Methods and Results: The global impact of HS during the last 30 days of pregnancy was −17% for birthweight and ranged between −4% and −8% for live weight at 15, 30 days of age (W30), and average daily gain from birth at 30 days. The results from both statistical approaches showed very similar heritabilities (h2), ranging from 0.192 to 0.237 for the direct genetic (D) effects and from 0.072 to 0.082 for the maternal genetic (M) effects, but the antagonism between (D) and (M) was higher when a longitudinal model was used. A significant genotype-environmental effect was also found regardless of whether the climatological covariables were considered in the model. In addition, we employed D and M breeding values for W30 as an example to create a new subjacent index by first using a principal component analysis and employing the leading eigenvalues as a weighted factor that provides the information needed to identify those genotypes that maximise the response for both genetic effects over a wide range of climate–environment levels. Conclusions: Our study revealed that the HS indexes of the mother during the gestation period have a significant effect on the growth of the lambs during the early stages of life.Fil: Molina, Antonio. Universidad de Córdoba; EspañaFil: Demyda-peyrás, Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez, Manuel. Universidad de Córdoba; EspañaFil: Serradilla, Juan M.. Universidad de Córdoba; EspañaFil: Menéndez Buxadera, Alberto. Universidad de Córdoba; Españ

Efecto del Locus CSN3 sobre la composición de la leche de cabra de raza murciano-granadina

CICYT AGL2002-04304-C03-01-02- 03 GA

Characterisation of Goats’ Response to Heat Stress: Tools to Improve Heat Tolerance

This chapter aims to review present knowledge about the effects of heat stress on goats, summarising what is known about its measurement, its impact on the performances of the animals, mainly milk traits, the physiological and genetic bases of the animals’ response and the improvement of resilience through selection. A short historic review of the climatic indexes used to measure heat stress, with special emphasis on the temperature humidity indexes, and the main consequences on milk yield and composition are followed by a description of the results of experiments carried out to study the physiological and metabolic consequences of heat stress. The results of the quantitative analyses of the genetic bases of heat stress using norm of reaction models and of the application of omic techniques, particularly transcriptomic and genomic, to understand the complexity of the genetic background of animal’s reaction to thermal stress, constitute the next points. The chapter ends treating the possible ways and difficulties of applying selection to increase resilience to heat stress

Fruit size and firmness QTL alleles of breeding interest identified in a sweet cherry ‘Ambrunés’ × ‘Sweetheart’ population

The Spanish local cultivar ‘Ambrunés’ stands out due to its high organoleptic quality and fruit firmness. These characteristics make it an important parent for breeding cherries with excellent fresh and post-harvest quality. In this work, an F1 sweet cherry population (n = 140) from ‘Ambrunés’ × ‘Sweetheart’ was phenotyped for 2 years for fruit diameter, weight and firmness and genotyped with the RosBREED cherry Illumina Infinium® 6K SNP array v1. These data were used to construct a linkage map and to carry out quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping of these fruit quality traits. Genotyping of the parental cultivars revealed that ‘Ambrunés’ is highly heterozygous, and its genetic map is the longest reported in the species using the same SNP array. Phenotypic data analyses confirmed a high heritability of fruit size and firmness and a distorted segregation towards softer and smaller fruits. However, individuals with larger and firmer fruits than the parental cultivars were observed, revealing the presence of alleles of breeding interest. In contrast to other genetic backgrounds in which a negative correlation was observed between firmness and size, in this work, no correlation or low positive correlation was detected between both traits. Firmness, diameter and weight QTLs detected validated QTLs previously found for the same traits in the species, and major QTLs for the three traits were located on a narrow region of LG1 of ‘Ambrunés’. Haplotype analyses of these QTLs revealed haplotypes of breeding interest in coupling phase in ‘Ambrunés’, which can be used for the selection of progeny with larger and firmer fruits

La propuesta de Master en Ingeniería Informática de las Universidades Públicas de la Comunidad de Madrid

Versión electrónica de la ponencia presentada en Simposio Internacional de Informática Educativa (SIIE 2004), celebrado en Cáceres en 2004En noviembre de 2002, las universidades públicas madrileñas iniciaron una propuesta de Plan de Estudios de Master en Ingeniería Informática resultado de la convocatoria de Master, regulada por orden 6534/2002, de 26 de noviembre. En el presente documento se resume el resultado del equipo de trabajo constituido por miembros representantes de las seis universidades públicas de la Comunidad de Madrid con los que han colaborado miembros de universidades extranjeras invitadas en calidad de participantes

Estimation des effets des facteurs fixes sur les poids des agneaux et sur la prolificité des brebis de la race ovine Segurana dans le sud-est espagnol

L'analyse réalisée sur les poids et les gains moyens quotidiens de 7294 agneaux a montré que les ~ffets des facteurs: année, saison et type de naissance, ainsi que ceux' du sexe de l'agneau, de l'âge de la mère à la mise-bas et de la covariable âge de l'agneau au sevrage, sont hautement significatifs sur le poids et sur la vitesse de croissance. D'autre part, l'analyse réalisée sur 5921. mises-bas de 1279 brebis a montré que les effets des facteurs: année d'agnelage, son interaction avec la saison d'agnelage-et l'âge de la brebis à la mise-bas sont hautement significatifs sur la prolificité. Par ailleurs, il ressort de ces analyses que la permanence des brebis dans l'élevage, au delà de leur âge de réforme (8-9 ans), a des répercussions négatives aussi bien sur leur prolificité que sur les performances pondérales de leur descendance. Aussi, les résultats obtenus suggèrent qu'il ne faut pas sevrer trop tardivement les agneaux à croissance lente, pour bien profiter de leur vitesse de croissance après sevrage, qui est généralement supérieure à celle d'avant sevrage

Short communication: An association analysis between one missense polymorphism at the SREBF1 gene and milk yield and composition traits in goats

Sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 1 (SREBF1) regulates the expression of genes involved in the biosynthesis of fatty acids and cholesterol. Herewith, we have sequenced the near-complete coding region and part of the 3?UTR of the goat SREBF1 gene. In doing so, we have detected a missense c.353CT polymorphism causing a proline to leucine substitution at position 118 (P118L). An association analysis with milk composition traits recorded in MurcianoGranadina goats only revealed a statistical tendency linking SREBF1 genotype and milk omega-3 fatty acid content. The lack of significant associations suggests that the P118L substitution does not involve a functional change.Le facteur de transcription de´nomme´ Sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 1 (SREBF1) re´gule l’expression des ge`nes implique´s dans la biosynthe`se des acides gras et du choleste´rol. Dans cette e´tude, nous avons se´quence´ la quasi-totalite´ de la re´gion codante et une partie du la re´gion 3?UTR du ge`ne SREBF1 de la che`vre. Ce travail, nous a permis d’identifier un polymorphisme non-synonyme c.353CT causant la substitution d’une Proline en Leucine a` la position 118. L’e´tude d’association avec la composition du lait enregistre´e en che`vres Murciano-Granadina, a re´ve´le´ seulement une tendance statistique reliant SREBF1 ge´notype et l’acide gras ome´ga-3 du lait. L’absence d’associations significatives sugge`re que la substitution P118L n’implique pas un changement fonctionnel

Modelos para la valoración genética de la disciplina de concurso completo de equitación a partir del control de rendimientos en las pruebas de selección de caballos jóvenes

Una de las principales fuentes de información funcional para la valoración genética precoz de los animales para las distintas disciplinas ecuestres son las Pruebas de Selección de Caballos Jóvenes (PSCJ), reguladas por el MAPyA, que se están celebrando en nuestro país desde el año 2004. Las PSCJ son muy importantes en la selección de los équidos deb ido a las altas correlaciones genéticas que se han encontrado entre las variables analizadas en animales jóvenes y los resultados obtenidos posteriormente en las competiciones, lo cual implica una buena predicción del rendimiento en el animal adulto (Wallin et al. , 2003). El concurso completo de equitación (CCE), conocido internacionalmente como “Eventing”, es una disciplina ecuestre que combina distintas pruebas (doma, salto y cross), exigiendo al animal un elevado grado de diversas aptitudes. Las principales razas de caballos participantes en España en CCE son, el Caballo de Deporte Español (CDE), el caballo de raza Anglo-árabe (A-á) y el Pura Raza árabe (PRá) El objetivo de este estudio ha sido establecer los modelos genéticos idóneos para la estimación de los valores de mejora y obtener estimas de heredabilidad de los caracteres de la disciplina de CC