Native Sheep Breeds in Poland-Importance and Outcomes of Genetic Resources Protection Programmes.

The sheep population of native breeds, despite their unique features and the ability to adapt to harsh environmental conditions, has significantly decreased in recent years. Due to the low profitability of breeding, many local breeds of sheep in Poland were exposed to the risk of extinction. Many years of crisis in sheep farming have exacerbated this situation.

A genome-wide association study for prolificacy in three Polish sheep breeds.

Reproductive traits (especially litter size) are usually characterized by low heritability, and thus, phenotypic selection is often ineffective and slow. In order to improve fertility characteristics such as ovulation rate and litter size, it seems more effective to select breeding animals based on their genotype. The aim of the study was to use genome-wide association study (GWAS) in three sheep breeds to identify the genetic variants affecting the litter size in sheep.

Kidney injury by cyclosporine A is aggravated in heme oxygenase-1 deficient mice and involves regulation of microRNAs.

Cyclosporine A (CsA), a widely used immunosuppressive drug, exerts nephrotoxic activities, as demonstrated by increased tubulointerstitial fibrosis, inflammation and podocyte damage. Recently, a number of microRNAs expressed in the kidney have been reported to be elevated during renal damage. Our aim was to investigate the effect of CsA on selected microRNAs in the mouse kidney after CsA treatment.

Genotyping-by-sequencing performance in selected livestock species.

Application of next generation sequencing for large scale genotyping in livestock is limited by high costs and challenging data analysis process. However, available restriction enzyme-based enrichment techniques like e.g.