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Sense Heritability (sense + heritability)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	60%

Selected Abstracts

Melanism in a larval Lepidoptera: repeatability and heritability of a dynamic trait

ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 2 2006
Kwang Pum Lee
Abstract., 1.,Although it is well established that the deposition of melanin pigment in the cuticle of larval Lepidoptera is influenced by both environmental and genetic factors, few studies have examined intra-individual regional variation in the degree of melanism or the ontogenetic dynamics of this trait. Here, heritable and density-dependent effects on within-individual and stage-specific variation in melanism were examined in caterpillars of the Egyptian cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval). 2.,Using quantitative spectrometric methods, it is shown that cuticular melanism changes dramatically within larval stadia, showing the highest and lowest levels of melanism early (first day) and late (final day) in each larval stadium respectively. However, solitary-reared caterpillars were significantly paler than those reared gregariously at all stages of development and maintained greater levels of variation in melanism. This variation in melanism was repeatable and exhibited a significant heritable component (narrow sense heritability based on offspring,parent regressions: h2 = 0.18,0.30). 3.,The degree of melanism was correlated negatively with larval body weight in solitary caterpillars, but not gregarious ones. Melanism also varied spatially, with the lateral longitudinal band being consistently darker than the dorsal or dorso-lateral bands. Crowd-rearing increased melanism in all regions of larval cuticle, but the extent of crowding-induced melanism was more pronounced in the dorsal and dorso-lateral bands than in the lateral one. 4.,These results indicate that although cuticular melanism is a highly dynamic trait, ontogenetic changes in relative cuticular melanism are both predictable and repeatable within individuals and genotypes. This has implications for our understanding of the evolution of melanism and for applying artificial selection on the basis of colour. [source]

Screening wild cherry (Prunus avium) for resistance to bacterial canker by laboratory and field tests

FOREST PATHOLOGY, Issue 6 2004
F. Santi
Summary Currently, bacterial canker caused by Pseudomonas syringae is a major cause of dieback and tree death in wild cherry (Prunus avium) plantations. The evaluation of breeding collections is needed to produce less susceptible clones or cultivars. Resistance tests were performed using excised shoots (1 and 2 years old) from 79 clones in the laboratory. A subset of 10 clones was also tested in the field. The clones were inoculated with four to seven isolates of a set of 15 isolates of P. s. pv. morsprunorum, P. s. pv. syringae, P. s. pv. persicae, P. syringae pv. avii and P. fluorescens. In the laboratory tests, older and larger shoots were more susceptible. In the field test, size and age of the shoots were not related to girdling by the bacterial canker. Two-year-old shoots were best for clonal discrimination. Correlations between 1 and 2-year-old shoots were significant but not high. The isolates varied a lot between experiments, but as the clone × isolate interactions were always low, breeding could thus be facilitated. The ranking of clones was conserved quite well between two laboratory tests, but not between two others. Good agreement was found for the best clones in the laboratory tests and in the field test. However, the two worst clones in the latter were among the best in one laboratory test. At least two independent tests in the laboratory are needed to evaluate resistance/susceptibility of clones. Broad sense heritability for resistance varied from 0.27 to 0.51. Although moderate, such heritability clearly encourages a breeding approach to reduce the problem of bacterial canker. Résumé Le chancre bactérien (Pseudomonas syringae) est une cause majeure de dépérissement dans les plantations de merisier du nord de la France. Nous devons évaluer les collections pour produire des variétés moins sensibles. Des branches coupées de un ou deux ans de 79 clones ont été testées au laboratoire. Dix de ces clones ont également été testés dans un test en extérieur. Les clones ont été inoculés avec un total de 15 isolats de P. s. pv. morsprunorum, P. s. pv. syringae, P. s. pv. persicae, P. s. pv. avii et P. fluorescens. Les plus fortes infections, mesurées par la longueur du chancre, ont été observées sur les branches les plus âgées et les plus épaisses, mais la taille et l'âge des branches n'ont eu aucune influence sur la note de ceinturation du test au champ. Les branches de deux ans se sont révélées meilleures pour discriminer les clones. Les corrélations entre moyennes de clones avec les branches de un et deux ans étaient significatives mais pas très élevées. Les isolats variaient beaucoup entre expériences, mais comme les interactions clone × bactérie étaient toujours faibles, la sélection clonale en devrait être facilitée. Le classement des clones était bien conservé entre deux tests de laboratoire, mais pas entre deux autres. Le classement entre tests au laboratoire et au champ se trouvait conservé, mais les deux plus mauvais clones dans ce dernier ont été bien classés dans un test de laboratoire, ce qui signifie qu'un seul test a laboratoire est insuffisant pour l'évaluation des clones. Les héritabilités au sens large variaient de 0.27 à 0.51. Bien que modérées, de telles héritabilités encouragent clairement à sélectionner des génotypes moins sensibles pour solutionner le problème du chancre bactérien. Zusammenfassung Der durch Pseudomonas syringae verursachte Bakterienkrebs ist eine der häufigsten Ursachen für das Absterben von Süsskirschen (Prunus avium) in Pflanzungen. Die Prüfung von Zuchtformen auf Resistenz ist nötig, um weniger anfällige Klone und Sorten zu fördern. Die Resistenz von 79 Klonen wurde im Labor an abgeschnittenen ein- und zweijährigen Trieben getestet. Zehn Klone wurden auch im Feld getestet. Die Klone wurden mit je vier bis sieben von insgesamt 15 Isolaten von P. s. pv. morsprunorum, P. s. pv. syringae, P. s. pv. persicae, P. s. pv. avii und P. fluorescens inokuliert. In den Labortests waren die älteren, dickeren Triebe anfälliger, währenddem in den Feldversuchen weder Alter noch Dicke der Triebe eine Rolle spielten. Zweijährige Triebe eigneten sich zur Differenzierung der Klone hinsichtlich ihrer Resistenz besser. Korrelationen zwischen ein- und zweijährigen Trieben waren signifikant aber nicht hoch. Die Reaktionen auf die Isolate variierten stark zwischen den Experimenten, aber die statistisch nachgewiesenen Wechselwirkungen zwischen Klonen und Isolaten waren stets schwach, was die Züchtung neuer Klone erleichtern dürfte. In zwei Labortests erzielten die Klone analoge Bewertungen, währenddem sie in zwei anderen Labortests unterschiedlich reagierten. Die Resultate aus Labor- und Feldversuchen stimmten für die resistentesten Klone gut überein, die anfälligsten Klone im Feldversuch waren jedoch unter den resistentesten in den Laborversuchen. Es sind also mindestens zwei unabhängige Labortests nötig, um den Grad der Resistenz eines Klones zu bestimmen. Der Vererbarkeit der Resistenz variierte zwischen 0.27 und 0.51. Obschon diese Werte moderat sind, sollen sie dazu ermuntern, mittels Züchtung auf eine Reduktion von durch den Bakterienkrebs bedingten Ausfällen hinzuarbeiten. [source]

Genetic relations between effortful and attentional control and symptoms of psychopathology in middle childhood

INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2008
Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant
Abstract Elucidating the genetic and environmental aetiology of effortful control (mother and father reports at two time points), attentional control (observer reports), and their associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms (mother and father reports) is the central focus of this paper. With a sample of twins in middle childhood participating in the Wisconsin Twin Project, broad sense heritability for parental-report effortful control ranged from 68% to 79%, with a slightly higher heritability estimate of 83% for observer report attentional control, and no influence of the shared environment on either trait. Further, measures of control were negatively correlated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms longitudinally, concurrently, and across reporters. Importantly, shared additive genetic influence accounted for the covariation between the control variables and symptoms of psychopathology. These results encourage identification of common genes that affect both effortful control and symptoms, and environmental triggers that uniquely influence symptoms of psychopathology. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Heritability of diurnal type: a nationwide study of 8753 adult twin pairs

JOURNAL OF SLEEP RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007
MARKKU KOSKENVUO
Summary Twin studies suggest a genetic component in diurnal types. In 1981, a questionnaire sent to the Older Finnish Twin Cohort yielded responses from 2836 adult monozygotic (MZ) and 5917 like-sexed dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs with four category self-report on diurnal type. We used structural equation modelling to estimate genetic and environmental components of variance in morningness and eveningness. The model fitting was best when the morningness and the eveningness were analysed together. The ADE-model (including additive genetic, dominant genetic and non-shared environmental effects) fitted best to the data. ADE-models for men and women separately did not differ in a statistically significant manner from the combined model, and similarly ADE-models for young and old age groups separately did not differ either. The estimate for overall genetic effect (broad sense heritability) was 49.7% (95% confidence interval 46.4,52.8), with the remainder accounted for by environmental factors not shared by siblings. The variance component estimates for the underlying liability to diurnal type were 11.7% (95% CI 0,23.7) for additive genetic factors, 38.0% (24.7,51.3) for genetic factors due to dominance. Genetic effects thus account for about one-half of the interindividual variability in diurnal type in adults. [source]

Evolutionary genetics of genital size and lateral asymmetry in the earwig Euborellia plebeja (Dermaptera: Anisolabididae)

BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 1 2010
YOSHITAKA KAMIMURA
Male genitalia show several evolutionary characteristics, including rapid morphological divergence between closely related species and low within-species phenotypic variability. In addition, genital asymmetry is widespread despite the essentially bilaterally symmetric external morphology of insects. Several hypotheses, such as sexual selection and lock-and-key hypotheses, have been proposed to explain these characteristics of genital evolution. Although these hypotheses provide different predictions about the genetic basis of variation in genitalia, detailed quantitative genetic studies have been conducted in only three insect taxa: heteropterans, dung beetles (Scarabaeidae), and drosophilid flies. For an anisolabidid earwig, Euborellia plebeja, characterized by paired elongated intromittent organs, we estimated the heritabilities and genetic correlations of genital laterality, size of genitalia, and body size. No statistically significant additive genetic, dominance, maternal, or common environmental effects were detected for genital laterality (readiness to use either the left or the right intromittent organ). This result lends further support to the general rule that the direction of antisymmetric variations is randomly determined by non-genetic factors. Irrespective of the restricted phenotypic variation in genitalia compared with body size (allometric slope < 1), as observed in previous studies for other insects, these two traits showed a similar level of genetic variation, measured as the narrow sense heritability (h2) and the coefficient of additive genetic variation (CVA). Comparison suggests the causes of interspecific differences in genetic variability/correlation structures were developmental processes (holo- or hemimetabolous) and/or mode of sexual selection. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 101, 103,112. [source]