Transgenesis in Animal Agriculture: Addressing Animal Health and Welfare Concerns

The US Food and Drug Administration’s final Guidance for Industry on the regulation of transgenesis in animal agriculture has paved the way for the commercialization of genetically engineered (GE) farm animals. The production-related diseases associated with extant breeding technologies are reviewed, as well as the predictable welfare consequences of continued emphasis on prolificacy at the potential expense of physical fitness. Areas in which biotechnology could be used to improve the welfare of animals while maintaining profitability are explored along with regulatory schema to improve agency integration in GE animal oversight

Molecular signatures of divergence and selection in closely related pine taxa

Efforts to detect loci under selection in plants have mostly focussed on single species. However, assuming that intraspecific divergence may lead to speciation, comparisons of genetic variation within and among recently diverged taxa can help to locate such genes. In this study, coalescent and outlier detection methods were used to assess nucleotide polymorphism and divergence at 79 nuclear gene fragments (1212 SNPs) in 16 populations (153 individuals) of the closely related, but phenotypically and ecologically distinct, pine taxa Pinus mugo, P. uliginosa and P. uncinata across their European distributions. Simultaneously, mitochondrial DNA markers, which are maternally inherited in pines and distributed by seeds at short geographic distance, were used to assess genetic relationships of the focal populations and taxa. The majority of nuclear loci showed homogenous patterns of variation between the taxa due to a high number of shared SNPs and haplotypes, similar levels of polymorphism, and low net divergence. However, against this common genetic background and an overall low population structure within taxa at mitochondrial markers, we identified several genes showing signatures of selection, accompanied by significant intra- and interspecific divergence. Our results indicate that loci involved in species divergence may be involved in intraspecific local adaptation

Data from: Genetic differentiation and species cohesion in two widespread Central American Begonia species

Begonia is one of the ten largest plant genera, with over 1500 species. This high species richness may in part be explained by weak species cohesion, which has allowed speciation by divergence in allopatry. In this study, we investigate species cohesion in the widespread Central American Begonia heracleifolia and Begonia nelumbiifolia, by genotyping populations at microsatellite loci. We then test for post-zygotic reproductive barriers using experimental crosses, and assess whether sterility barriers are related to intraspecific changes in genome size, indicating major genome restructuring between isolated populations. Strong population substructure was found for B. heracleifolia (FST=0.364, F′ST=0.506) and B. nelumbiifolia (FST=0.277, F′ST=0.439), and Bayesian admixture analysis supports the division of most populations into discrete genetic clusters. Moderate levels of inferred selfing (B. heracleifolia s=0.40, B. nelumbiifolia s=0.62) and dispersal limitation are likely to have contributed to significant genetic differentiation (B. heracleifolia Jost’s D=0.274; B. nelumbiifolia D=0.294). Interpopulation crosses involving a divergent B. heracleifolia population with a genome size ~10% larger than the species mean had a ~20% reduction in pollen viability compared with other outcrosses, supporting reproductive isolation being polymorphic within the species. The population genetic data suggest that Begonia populations are only weakly connected by gene flow, allowing reproductive barriers to accumulate between the most isolated populations. This supports allopatric divergence in situ being the precursor of speciation in Begonia, and may also be a common speciation mechanism in other tropical herbaceous plant groups

Infrared, Raman, and Fluorescence Spectroscopies: Methodologies and Applications

Spectroscopic techniques have emerged in food analysis as rapid and very useful tools for determining a great variety of chemical parameters. They provide elegant, fast, and easy-to-use solutions to tackle analytical challenges as well as a cost reduction. They offer the possibility to control a high number of parameters and properties simultaneously at the different steps of the food and feed chains and can be applied online. Huge instrumental and computer improvements have contributed to the development of near-infrared (NIR), mid-infrared (MIR), Raman, and fluorescence spectroscopies. In the field of fats and oils, spectroscopic techniques can be applied to determine unsaturation degree, oxidation state, moisture, trans double bonds, free fatty acids, and the presence of impurities or other edible oils, among many others. Such applications require more research to improve calibration performance without losing the advantageous feature of being rapid methods. It delivers methodologies that can be eligible as standard methods to alleviate complex olive oil analysis. In this chapter, the theory and instrumentation currently used in infrared, Raman, and fluorescence spectroscopy for the analysis of oils is presented, as well as a complete description of data acquisition, interpretation of oil spectra, assignment of the most noteworthy bands, correlation between absorption intensities, and chemical indices and chemometric data treatment for quantitative and qualitative analyses. A review of the potential offered by the spectroscopic techniques is also included.Peer reviewe