Genetic selection for increased mean and reduced variance of twinning rate in Belclare ewes

It is sometimes possible to breed for more uniform individuals by selecting animals with a greater tendency to be less variable, that is, those with a smaller environmental variance. This approach has been applied to reproduction traits in various animal species. We have evaluated fecundity in the Irish Belclare sheep breed by analyses of flocks with differing average litter size (number of lambs per ewe per year, NLB) and have estimated the genetic variance in environmental variance of lambing traits using double hierarchical generalized linear models (DHGLM). The data set comprised of 9470 litter size records from 4407 ewes collected in 56 flocks. The percentage of pedigreed lambing ewes with singles, twins and triplets was 30, 54 and 14%, respectively, in 2013 and has been relatively constant for the last 15 years. The variance of NLB increases with the mean in this data; the correlation of mean and standard deviation across sires is 0.50. The breeding goal is to increase the mean NLB without unduly increasing the incidence of triplets and higher litter sizes. The heritability estimates for lambing traits were NLB, 0.09; triplet occurrence (TRI) 0.07; and twin occurrence (TWN), 0.02. The highest and lowest twinning flocks differed by 23% (75% versus 52%) in the proportion of ewes lambing twins. Fitting bivariate sire models to NLB and the residual from the NLB model using a double hierarchical generalized linear model (DHGLM) model found a strong genetic correlation (0.88 ± 0.07) between the sire effect for the magnitude of the residual (V_E) and sire effects for NLB, confirming the general observation that increased average litter size is associated with increased variability in litter size. We propose a threshold model that may help breeders with low litter size increase the percentage of twin bearers without unduly increasing the percentage of ewes bearing triplets in Belclare sheep.     

Effects of the invasive tomato red spider mite (Acari: Tetranychidae) on growth and leaf yield of African nightshades

The tomato red spider mite, Tetranychus evansi Baker and Pritchard, is one of the most serious pests of solanaceous crops in Africa. Field experiments were conducted to investigate its effects on the growth and leaf yield of five African nightshade species viz. Solanum americanum, S. sarrachoides, S. scabrum, S. tarderemotum and S. villosum during the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons. Plants were infested with 2–4 day-old female spider mites which were allowed to multiply. The number of mite motiles increased throughout the growing season in unsprayed plots and this number varied significantly between the African nightshade species. Except for S. sarrachoides, leaf damage was high on the other four Solanum species irrespective of the spraying regime during both seasons. However, S. scabrum had a significantly greater leaf area ratio (ratio of leaf area to total plant weight) and specific leaf area (ratio of leaf area to total leaf dry weight) during both seasons. Overall yields were 1.5 times more in S. scabrum and S. sarrachoides compared to S. americanum, S. tarderemotum and S. villosum. Our results show that T. evansi infestation affects the leaf area ratio and specific leaf area of African nightshade species differentially which eventually determines the plant's overall leaf yield. These findings present an opportunity for evaluation and selection of African nightshade species that can withstand spider mite infestation in small holder farms for increased vegetable production in Africa.     

应用动物模型REML法估计金华猪生长性状遗传参数

资料取自金华猪场 1979～ 1999年金华后备猪生长发育测定记录。采用动物模型约束性最大似然法 (REML) ,对该猪群的遗传参数进行估计。测定 14 18头金华后备猪的生长发育记录。结果表明 :4月龄、6月龄的体质量、体长、体高、胸围、腿臀围、膘厚、2～ 6月平均日增体质量的遗传力分别为 0 .4 8± 0 .12、0 .4 7± 0 .12、0 .4 9± 0 14、0 4 8± 0 .14、0 .4 3± 0 .12、0 .4 1± 0 .11、0 .4 8± 0 .14、0 .30± 0 .13,与国内外文献报道结果相近。初生与 6 0日龄、6 0日龄体质量与 4月龄体质量、6 0日龄体质量与 6月龄体质量、4月龄体质量与 6月龄体高、6月龄体质量与 6月龄体高的遗传相关分别为0 .5 3、0 .5 8、0 .4 2、0 .4 8和 0 4 3,为中高强度相关。而 4月龄体质量与 6月龄体质量 (rA0 .84、rp0 .78)、4月龄体质量与 6月龄体长 (rA0 .88、rp0 .71)、4月龄体质量与 6月龄胸围 (rA0 .6 1、rp0 .5 5 )、6月龄体质量与 6月龄体长 (rA0 .84、rp0 .82 )、6月龄体质量与 6月龄胸围 (rA0 .74、rp0 .82 )均呈强的正相关     

Female fertility variation in mature Pinus sylvestris clonal seed orchards

Abstract

Female fertility is the basis for the output of seeds from clonal orchards and its variation is of major interest for the economics and biology of seed orchards, especially for the efficiency and diversity of seed orchard crops. Assessments of female fertility variation in 10 mature (>15 years old) seed orchards of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) were evaluated and compared. Depending on the individual orchard, fertility variation for each clone was assessed in slightly different ways, e.g. number of strobili, cones, seeds or litre of cones per ramet. Assessments in five of the orchards were made over consecutive years. The main result was that the clonal variation in mean female fertility per surviving ramet was lower than expected from the literature; the Kang–Lindgren sibling coefficient (Ψ) within individual years averaged 1.35. The variation between ramets within clones and years was of similar magnitude as that between clones. Clone by year interactions were noticeable, but were slightly lower than the variation between as well as that within clones in individual years. There was considerable variation in the variance components between years. The limited variation in female fertility indicated that it should not be a selection criterion when selecting clones for a seed orchard. Furthermore, it will not result in large differences between clones in seed set or large reductions in gene diversity in productive Scots pine seed orchards.     

典型喀斯特峰丛洼地土壤有机碳含量空间预测研究

我国西南喀斯特地区可能是全球水循环加强背景下一个重要的碳汇[1]。植被和土壤有机碳(SOC)的增加对于该地区整体碳汇的增加,以及这部分由水驱动的碳汇的增加具有极为重要的意义。然而峰丛洼地地区从景观到群落不同尺度水平上表现出的高度异质性,为该地区碳储量的估算和碳源/汇的评估带来很大困难,亟需探索有效方法对     

仿刺参疣足数量SNP遗传力评估

随着测序技术的发展,基于单核苷酸多态性(SNP)分子标记的遗传力估计比传统法准确性更高,已被广泛应用于动植物育种中.本研究对不同地理仿刺参(Apostichopus japonicus)群体的疣足数量进行重测序全基因组水平的SNP遗传力估计,结果显示,次等位基因频率(Minor allele frequency,MAF...     

Exploitation of spatial information in high resolution digital imagery to map leaf area index

Crop responses to management practices and the environment, as quantified by leaf area index (LAI), provide decision-making criteria for the delineation of crop management zones. The objective of this work was to investigate whether spatial correlations inferred from remotely sensed imagery can be used to interpolate and map LAI using a relatively small number of ground-based LAI measurements. Airborne imagery was recorded with the Airborne Imaging Spectrometer for Applications (AISA) radiometer over a 3.2 ha corn field. Spectral vegetation indexes (SVI) were derived from the image and aggregated to cells of 2 × 2 m², 4 × 4 m², and 8 × 8 m² resolution. The residual maximum likelihood method was used to estimate the LAI variogram parameters. A generalized least squares regression was used to relate ground truth LAI data and collocated image pixels. This regression result was then used to convert variograms from the imagery to LAI units as well as to interpolate and map LAI. The decrease in resolution by merging pixels led to an increase in the value of the r ² and to a decrease in root mean-squared error (RMSE) values. The accuracy of kriged estimates from the variogram of the measured LAI and that from the image derived variograms was estimated by cross-validation. There was no difference in the accuracy of the estimates using either variograms from measured LAI values or from those of converted SVIs. Maps of LAI from ground-based measurements made by kriging the data with image-derived variogram parameters were similar to those obtained by with kriging with the variogram of measured LAI. Similar coarse spatial trends of high, medium and low LAI were evident for both maps. Variogram parameters from ground-based measurements of LAI compared favorably with those derived from remotely sensed imagery and could be used to provide reasonable results for the interpolation of LAI measurements.     

基于最大似然法与矩法的黄土高原小流域土壤碳氮空间变异分析

以黄土高原寺底沟小流域为研究对象,根据不同土地利用方式采集46个样点的土壤样品,通过地统计方法对土壤有机碳和全氮的空间变异特征进行了分析。采用受限最大似然法(REML)和矩法(MOM)两种方法分别对变异函数进行了估计,通过交叉检验选择克里金预测效果较好的变异函数进行地统计插值。(1)与矩法(MOM)相比,在多数情况下受限最大似然法(REML)估计的变异函数进行克里金插值更加准确。(2)土层深度对土壤全氮空间变异影响较小,对土壤有机碳影响较大,表层土壤有机碳含量及变异程度明显高于下层土壤。(3)土地利用方式对土壤有机碳和全氮的空间分布有重要影响,灌木林和天然草地土壤有机碳和全氮水平最高,弃耕地其次,梯田、果园、人工草地最低,表明退耕还林对提高土壤碳氮水平有重要贡献。     

Spatial prediction of soil properties using EBLUP with the Matérn covariance function

Spatial prediction with the presence of spatially dense ancillary variables has attracted research in pedometrics. While soil survey and analysis of soil properties are still expensive and time consuming, the secondary data can be made available on a dense grid for the whole area of interest. The main aim of using the ancillary data is to enhance prediction of soil properties by making use of the ancillary variables as covariates. Methods that can be used for this purpose are kriging with external drift, cokriging, regression kriging, and REML-EBLUP (Residual Maximum Likelihood-Empirical Best Linear Unbiased Predictor). Regression kriging is a sub-optimal method that has been utilised extensively because it is easy to use and has been shown empirically to perform as well as other methods. A statically sound method is REML-EBLUP. This paper examines the use of REML-EBLUP in combination with the Matérn covariance function for spatial prediction of soil properties. Methods for estimating parameters of the Matérn variogram using REML, and prediction with EBLUP are described. The prediction capability of REML-EBLUP, regression kriging, and ordinary kriging is compared for four datasets. Results show that although REML-EBLUP generally improves the prediction, the improvement is small compared with regression kriging. Thus, for practical applications regression kriging appears to be a robust method. REML-EBLUP is useful when the trend is strong, and the number of observations is small (< 200). We concluded that improvement in the prediction of soil properties does not rely on more sophisticated statistical methods, but rather on gathering more useful and higher quality data.     

应用布拉普法选择南阳公牛的研究(上)

应用单性状布拉普(BLUP)育种值及方差组分的约束极大似然估计,评价了9头南阳黄牛种公牛的优劣秩次,估出1.5岁体高、体斜长、胸围、管围及体重的遗传力为0.5297、0.6239、0.3929、0.1242和0.4257,1979～1983年5年间各性状年平均遗传进展分别为0.3009、0.1225、—2.1225、O.0494和1.5514。