Inverse relationship between genetic diversity and epigenetic complexity

Early studies of molecular evolution revealed a correlation between genetic distance and time of species divergence. This observation provoked the molecular clock hypothesis and in turn the ‘Neutral Theory’, which however remains an incomplete explanation since it predicts a constant mutation rate per generation whereas empirical evidence suggests a constant rate per year. Data inconsistent with the molecular clock hypothesis have steadily accumulated in recent years that show no correlation between genetic distance and time of divergence. It has therefore become a challenge to find a testable idea that can reconcile the seemingly conflicting data sets. Here, an inverse relationship between genetic diversity and epigenetic complexity was deduced from a simple intuition in building complex systems. Genetic diversity, i.e., genetic distance or dissimilarity in DNA or protein sequences between individuals or species, is restricted by the complexity of epigenetic programs. This inverse relationship logically deduces the maximum genetic diversity hypothesis, which suggests that macroevolution from simple to complex organisms involves a punctuational increase in epigenetic complexity that in turn causes a punctuational loss in genetic diversity. The hypothesis explains a diverse set of biological phenomena, including both for and against the correlation between genetic distance and time of divergence.
&#xa

Kimpul (Xanthosoma spp.) characterization based on morphological characteristic and isozymic analysis

Nurmiyati, Sugiyarto, Sajidan. 2009. Kimpul (Xanthosoma spp.) characterization based on morphological characteristic and isozymic analysis. Nusantara Bioscience 1: 138-145. This research is aimed: (i) to know the variety of kimpul (Xanthosoma spp.) based on morphological characteristics and isozymes analysis; (ii) to know the correlation between its genetic space based on morphological characteristics and its genetic resemblance based on isozymes-banding pattern. This research results were analyzed and described by descriptive qualitative methods. Morphological observation was carried out in sub-District of Galur, Lendah and Girimulyo, Kulonprogo District, Yogyakarta. Morphological data of the kimpul plant was explored descriptively and then made dendogram. Data of isozymic banding pattern were analyzed quantitatively based on the appearance of the band on the gel, and qualitatively based on the thickness of the band formed, and then made dendogram. The correlation, between its genetic distance based on morphological characteristics and its genetic resemblance based on isozymes-banding pattern, were then analyzed grounded on coefficient correlation between product- moment and goodness of it criteria based on correlation. The results pointed out that morphologically, on eight observed samples which were consist of four different types (species), each Xanthosoma from different locations did not indicate obvious differences. Esterase was formed four different banding-patterns, Glutamate Oxaloacetate Transaminase indicated eight different banding-patterns, and Peroxidase indicated seven different banding-patterns. Correlation between morphological data and data from EST and GOT isozymic banding pattern were very good (0.967918 and 0.937113), While, the correlations between morphological data and POD isozymes were good (0.892721). Key words: kimpul, Xanthosoma, morphological characteristic, isozyme

Evaluation of body condition score measured throughout lactation as an indicator of fertility in dairy cattle

Body condition score (BCS) records of primiparous Holstein cows were analyzed both as a single measure per animal and as repeated measures per sire of cow. The former resulted in a single, average, genetic evaluation for each sire, and the latter resulted in separate genetic evaluations per day of lactation. Repeated measure analysis yielded genetic correlations of less than unity between days of lactation, suggesting that BCS may not be the same trait across lactation. Differences between daily genetic evaluations on d 10 or 30 and subsequent daily evaluations were used to assess BCS change at different stages of lactation. Genetic evaluations for BCS level or change were used to estimate genetic correlations between BCS measures and fertility traits in order to assess the capacity of BCS to predict fertility. Genetic correlation estimates with calving interval and non-return rate were consistently higher for daily BCS than single measure BCS evaluations, but results were not always statistically different. Genetic correlations between BCS change and fertility traits were not significantly different from zero. The product of the accuracy of BCS evaluations with their genetic correlation with the UK fertility index, comprising calving interval and non-return rate, was consistently higher for daily than for single BCS evaluations, by 28 to 53%. This product is associated with the conceptual correlated response in fertility from BCS selection and was highest for early (d 10 to 75) evaluations.</p

Most of the genetic covariation between major depressive and alcohol use disorders is explained by trait measures of negative emotionality and behavioral control

Background Mental health disorders commonly co-occur, even between conceptually distinct syndromes, such as internalizing and externalizing disorders. The current study investigated whether phenotypic, genetic, and environmental variance in negative emotionality and behavioral control account for the covariation between major depressive disorder (MDD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD). Method A total of 3623 members of a national twin registry were administered structured diagnostic telephone interviews that included assessments of lifetime histories of MDD and AUD, and were mailed self-report personality questionnaires that assessed stress reactivity (SR) and behavioral control (CON). A series of biometric models were fitted to partition the proportion of covariance between MDD and AUD into SR and CON. Results A statistically significant proportion of the correlation between MDD and AUD was due to variance specific to SR (men = 0.31, women = 0.27) and CON (men = 0.20, women = 0.19). Further, genetic factors explained a large proportion of this correlation (0.63), with unique environmental factors explaining the rest. SR explained a significant proportion of the genetic (0.33) and environmental (0.23) overlap between MDD and AUD. In contrast, variance specific to CON accounted for genetic overlap (0.32), but not environmental overlap (0.004). In total, SR and CON accounted for approximately 70% of the genetic and 20% of the environmental covariation between MDD and AUD. Conclusions This is the first study to demonstrate that negative emotionality and behavioral control confer risk for the co-occurrence of MDD and AUD via genetic factors. These findings are consistent with the aims of NIMH's RDoC proposal to elucidate how transdiagnostic risk factors drive psychopathology

The estimation of genetic parameters for growth curve traits in Raeini Cashmere goat described by Gompertz model

The objectives of this study were to describe growth curve of Raeini Cashmere goat applying the Gompertz growth model and genetic evaluation of growth curve-related traits including model parameters of A, B and K, inflection age (IA) and inflection weight (IW) under animal model. The data used in this study, collected in Raeini Cashmere goat breeding station from 1997 to 2009 and were included 12,831 body weights records measured at birth, weaning, 6-months of age, 9-month of age and yearling of age. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient between observed and predicted body weights was 0.98, which means that Gompertz model adequately described the growth curve in Raeini Cashmere goat. The estimated value for growth curve parameters of A, B and K were 17.97, 1.97 and 0.017, respectively. The weight and age at point of inflection were 6.63 kg and 52.94 days, respectively. Direct heritability estimates for A, B, K, IA and IW were low values of 0.14, 0.10, 0.03, 0.14 and 0.14, respectively. Low estimated values for direct heritability of the studied growth curve traits in Raeini Cashmere goat indicated that direct selection for these traits may not be useful in terms of achieving genetic change. Direct genetic correlations ranged from −0.76 (K-IW) to 0.98 (A-IW). Phenotypic correlation estimates were generally lower than the direct genetic ones and ranged from −0.30 (K-IW) to 0.69 (A-B and B-IA). IA and IW had high positive phenotypic (0.86) and genetic (0.99) correlations, implying IA and IW were highly correlated in terms of phenotypic and genetic effects. The studied growth curve parameters of Raeini Cashmere goat have shown low levels of additive genetic variation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A new genetic algorithm for multi-label correlation-based feature selection.

This paper proposes a new Genetic Algorithm for Multi-Label Correlation-Based Feature Selection (GA-ML-CFS). This GA performs a global search in the space of candidate feature subset, in order to select a high-quality feature subset is used by a multi-label classification algorithm - in this work, the Multi-Label k-NN algorithm. We compare the results of GA-ML-CFS with the results of the previously proposed Hill-Climbing for Multi-Label Correlation-Based Feature Selection (HC-ML-CFS), across 10 multi-label datasets