Breeding in Biological News

Mary had a lot of lambs: Researchers identify way to accelerate sheep breeding

... validated the gene's relationship with aseasonal breeding by observing that trait in the flock. The ... may be an accurate indicator for the phenotype of breeding out of season, though it's uncertain whether the ... the gene's ability to indicate for aseasonal breeding each time the allele is bred into a new sheep ...

Biologists rediscover endangered frog population

... along with the San Diego Zoo's first successful breeding of the frog in captivity, and successful efforts ... scientists have had great difficulty breeding frogs in captivity," said Jeff Lemm, an animal ... The one frog to mature is thriving. The next breeding season is expected to be December 2009 to March ...

Seals quickly respond to gain and loss of habitat under climate change

... climate and habitat change and established a new breeding site thousands of kilometres from existing breeding grounds, according to new research. An ... species responded to the gain and loss of new breeding habitat. The new habitat was quickly adopted, ...

New national genome center launched

... of new antibiotics to fight 'superbugs', breeding of new crops with increased tolerance of drought, and the breeding of livestock better able to resist emerging ... the synthesis of these compounds could allow the breeding of, for example, tomatoes with higher amounts of ...

Hatchery fish may hurt efforts to sustain wild salmon runs

... that similar effects could be found. Captive breeding is now a cornerstone of recovery efforts by ... report. Thousands of species may require captive breeding to prevent their extinction in the next 200 years ... wrote in their report's conclusion. "Captive breeding for reintroduction or supplementation can have a ...

Hunt for 'climate-ready' crops accelerates as organizations search seed collections worldwide

... Global Partnership Initiative for Plant breeding Capacity (GIPB). "We want to support ... particularly in the developing world, that plant breeding efforts are not moving fast enough to develop new ... Global Partnership Initiative for Plant breeding Capacity (GIPB) is supporting efforts by plant ...

A genome may reduce your carbon footprint

... through marker-assisted selection into almost all breeding programs. With availability of cheap sequencing ... through fixation of beneficial alleles in breeding populations. There are likely to be a few genes ... dramatically impact yields once incorporated into breeding programs. This has occurred during the ...

Honest crabs, power to the hungry, nice mice and clever meerkats: News from the American Naturalist

... and University of the Witwatersrand) studied the breeding strategies of striped mice in South Africa. They found that dominant males who controlled breeding groups had lower testosterone levels than ... imagine, is less successful than establishing a breeding group. Carsten Schradin, Michael Scantlebury, ...

Identifying mega-targets for high-yield plant breeding

... technology, scientists are able to develop breeding programs with great care for the security of ... with the changing climate. Genetic diversity in a breeding program is essential as an insurance against ... The incorporation of diversity into a breeding program, however, should be planned carefully. ...

Hoarding rainwater could 'dramatically' expand range of dengue-fever mosquito

... such as modified wheelie bins are potential breeding sites for this disease-bearing mosquito. Without ... where they are currently not found once suitable breeding sites, such as containers, become available. Our ... larval phase and it is very particular about breeding in artificial containers like water tanks, ...

A fisheries catch-22

... dire situation, captive breeding, the controlled breeding of organisms in protected environments, is ... Despite its popularity, does captive breeding actually work? In the current issue of ... provides a candid look at whether these breeding programs are fulfilling their mandates. ...

DOE Joint Genome Institute completes soybean genome

... to the research community to advance new breeding strategies for one of the world's most valuable ... for the information that will help speed up the breeding process. It should cut traditional breeding time by half from the typical 15 years." ...

Nuclear science for food security

... today called for increased investment in a plant breeding technique that could bolster efforts aimed at ... The IAEA is urging a revival of nuclear crop breeding technologies to help tackle world hunger." For ... to produce more, better and safer food. In plant breeding and genetics, its expertise is helping countries ...

UGA study reveals ecosystem-level consequences of frog extinctions

... the survival of amphibians by collecting and breeding them. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is one of the key breeding sites. "The one speck of hope is that if ... said. "As long as we have the money to keep a breeding program going, in the future it might be possible ...

Kazak apple research key to preventing blue mold

... to create mold-resistant apples should obtain breeding seeds, or germplasm, from the fruit's geographic ... accessions may serve as a source of resistance in breeding programs and can be useful in explaining the ... any identified high-resistance germplasm in apple breeding programs using traditional or genetic engineering ...

Neighbors from hell: Infanticide rife in guillemot colony

... parents and rear only one chick during the breeding season, which runs from April to July. Because ... Although aggression between adults is common - breeding pairs often are in physical contact and ledges can be densely packed with up to thirty breeding pairs in one square metre aggression toward ...

Recovery efforts not enough for critically endangered Asian vulture

... ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Captive breeding colonies of a critically endangered vulture, ... as well, as uneaten livestock carcasses provide breeding grounds for bacteria and attract feral dogs, ... from birds in Pakistan's last remaining wild breeding colony, to see how genetic diversity in the wild ...

Genetic data promises new future for kiwi fruit

... of HortResearch's world-renowned apple and pear breeding programme. A paper detailing the discovery and ... as Marker Assisted Selection (MAS). In a MAS breeding programme, breeders use traditional crossing ... identify the genes they're looking for. "If breeding a new fruit with a specific trait is like finding ...

Good breeding increases shelf life

... environments will likely be useful as parents in breeding programs to develop new romaine cultivars with an ... can use these methods to characterize or identify breeding lines that are suitable for salad-cut markets ... and to select for increased shelf life within breeding populations. These practices should facilitate a ...

Penguins setting off sirens over health of world's oceans

... and rampant coastline development that threatens breeding habitat for many penguin species, along with ... Boersma has studied the world's largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo on ... in 2006 as climate anomalies wreaked havoc on breeding of the same population of Emperor penguins that ...

Bird watchers, space technology come together in Montana State University study

... 50 times in 24.5 miles for the North American breeding Bird Survey. Trying to finish before the birds ... Group. "It is very difficult to study bird breeding habitat over large area from ground surveys, as ... --who participated in the North American breeding Bird Survey. The survey is a joint effort of the ...

Research required urgently to control planthopper pests

... (IPM), reducing unnecessary insecticide use, and breeding BPH-resistant rice varietieshelped keep BPH under ... of ecosystem-services frameworks and lessons from breeding resistance, understanding farmer decisions, ... planthopper problem in hybrid rice Genetics and breeding for host-plant resistance to planthoppers ...

The cormorant -- the 'black plague' or an example of successful species conservation?

... (Phalacrocorax auritus) have been increasing. breeding and wintering areas are distributed over the ... regulation difficult: "Some of the birds are not breeding in spite of being sexually mature, because they ... from severe losses after disasters. If the breeding birds are killed, then the 'floaters' will take ...

Monarch butterflies help explain why parasites harm hosts

... behaviors. Eastern monarchs famously migrate from breeding grounds as far north as Canada to their wintering ... also calls into question the wisdom of captive breeding of monarchs for intentional release at events ... range and habitat destruction in their winter breeding grounds. Theres a very real probability that ...

Flying off course

... They discovered that the distance between the breeding grounds in northern Siberia and the wintering ... was often similar to the distance between the breeding grounds and Europe. The more similar the ... evaluated the body mass, wingspan, size of breeding area, distance between ...

Asian waterbirds stage remarkable comeback

... of park rangers to provide 24-hour protection to breeding colonies. The project pioneered a novel approach: ... include the largest, and in some cases, the only breeding populations of seven Globally Threatened large ... species have increased from a total of 2,500 breeding pairs in 2001 to 10,000 pairs in 2007. The ...

Killer fungus spells disaster for wheat

... took hold, says Rick Ward of CIMMYT, the wheat breeding institute in Mexico that started the Green ... be less selection pressure for it to do so. A breeding programme by CIMMYT and others has now uncovered ... prices, warns Ward. The problem is that crop breeding is slow. It usually takes at least five years to ...

Washington University unveils draft sequence of corn genome

... probe the corn genome to find ways to improve breeding and subsequently increase crop yields and ... has been used extensively in both commercial corn breeding and in research laboratories. The genome will ... but also will be an important resource for plant breeding and biotechnology companies," says project ...

Early environment may be key to determining bird migration location

... birds choose the nesting location of their first breeding season has been something of a mystery in the ... redstart is a warbler that migrates between breeding grounds in North America and winter spots in the ... from the lower rent district leave later for breeding grounds, must migrate farther north, and when ...

Science, not romance, controls mating at Smithsonian's National Zoo

... an unromantic encounter. Successful breeding is often much more complicated than putting a ... Zoo facilitates this controlled and strategic breeding through its participation in the Species Survival ... of each animal in a particular program and make breeding recommendations for those animals based on which ...

Team finds an economical way to boost the vitamin A content of maize

... pioneered an economical approach to the selective breeding of maize that can boost levels of provitamin A, ... a new approach for selecting the parent stock for breeding maize, and significantly reduces the ambiguity ... of screening the parent stock and progeny of breeding experiments, Rocheford said. A common ...

A helping hand from the grandparents

... as it provides another route to co-operative breeding - where adult individuals appear to act ... in the group to rear offspring. Co-operative breeding is known to take place in birds, mammals and in ... from previous years who, because of a lack of breeding opportunities elsewhere, stay within the ...

Plant geneticists find veritas in vino

... the model plants Arabidopsis and poplar. The breeding of grape vines is difficult because they take ... flavor and aroma compounds. This will allow breeding for diseases resistance to proceed without ... offers a tool to open a new era in the molecular breeding of grapes. ...

Parasites might spur evolution of strange amphibian breeding habits

... the evolution of new and sometimes bizarre breeding strategies. Brian Todd, a researcher at the ... return to the water to breed. But there are other breeding strategies as well. Take, for instance, the ... natural selection favored these non-traditional breeding strategies as a way to avoid predatory fish or ...

UCR researchers awarded nearly $1.7M to develop improved cowpea varieties

... resources and tools needed to implement modern breeding approaches that could alleviate major constraints ... cowpea genomics effort. We will use modern plant breeding approaches that employ new and efficient ... the best trait combinations (or genes) during the breeding process. For example, a plant scientist might ...

John Vercoe Conference

... the worlds small-scale farmers can enhance the breeding potential of their farm animals. As being ... Kenya WHAT: John Vercoe Conference: Animal breeding for poverty alleviation: Harnessing science for ... Amidst the on-going livestock revolution, breeding could become a major factor encouraging livestock ...

The race for biofuels driving alternative sources of biomass

... basis, says Dr. Bill Rooney, professor of plant breeding and genetics, Soil & Crop Sciences Department, ... on Wednesday, Nov. 7 during his talk, Sorghum breeding for Bioenergy Traits, at the International Annual ... He will speak at 2:30 pm during the symposium breeding and Genomics of Crops for Bioenergy at the Ernest ...

City birds better than rural species in coping with human disruption

... that asked them to list 10 common native breeding birds found in their cities. The responses ... "rural," a species could not be described as breeding in human-disturbed habitats such as towns and cities, and its natural breeding distribution must overlap at least one of the ...

Challenges remain in reintroducing American chestnut

... Asian fungus nearly eliminated the tree. A breeding program begun by the American Chestnut Foundation ... decade. More resources need to be directed toward breeding programs, he said. More existing trees also need to be included in breeding programs as soon as possible to produce a ...

Uncertainty drives the evolution of 'cooperative breeding' in birds

... what conditions you will be facing when the next breeding season rolls around, said Dustin Rubenstein of ... has shown that many species of cooperatively breeding birds live in semi-arid tropical and sub-tropical ... relationship between the incidence of cooperative breeding among species and any particular environmental ...