Whole grain oat has become an increasingly popular baking ingredient. Still, oat baking poses many industrial challenges because the baking quality criteria have not been set for whole grain oat flours, and cultivar variation remains unknown. We aimed to assess the baking quality variation of twenty whole grain oat cultivar samples, and to identify the factors that caused the variation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStature (adult body height) and body mass index (BMI) have a strong genetic component explaining observed variation in human populations; however, identifying those genetic components has been extremely challenging. It seems obvious that sample size is a critical determinant for successful identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) that underlie the genetic architecture of these polygenic traits. The inherent shared environment and known genetic relationships in family studies provide clear advantages for gene mapping over studies utilizing unrelated individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Humans have an innate preference for sweet taste, but the degree of liking for sweet foods varies individually.
Objective: The proportion of inherited sweet taste preference was studied. A genome-wide linkage analysis was performed to locate the underlying genetic elements in the genome.
Twin cohorts provide a unique advantage for investigations of the role of genetics and environment in the etiology of variation in common complex traits by reducing the variance due to environment, age, and cohort differences. The GenomEUtwin (http://www.genomeutwin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe significant worldwide health burden introduced by tobacco smoking highlights the importance of studying the genetic determinants of smoking behavior and the key factor sustaining compulsive smoking, that is, nicotine dependence (ND). We have here addressed the genetic background of smoking in a special study sample of twins, harmonized for early life events and specifically ascertained for smoking from the nationwide twin cohort of the genetically unique population of Finland. The twins and their families were carefully examined for extensive phenotype profiles and a genome-wide scan was performed to identify loci behind the smoking status, ND and the comorbid phenotype of ND and alcohol use in 505 individuals from 153 families.
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