Multi-Generational Kinship, Multiple Mating, and Flexible Modes of Parental Care in a Breeding Population of the Veery (Catharus fuscescens), a Trans-Hemispheric Migratory Songbird.

We discovered variable modes of parental care in a breeding population of color-banded Veeries (Catharus fuscescens), a Nearctic-Neotropical migratory songbird, long thought to be socially monogamous, and performed a multi-locus DNA microsatellite analysis to estimate parentage and kinship in a sample of 37 adults and 21 offspring. We detected multiple mating in both sexes, and four modes of parental care that varied in frequency within and between years including multiple male feeders at some nests, and males attending multiple nests in the same season, each with a different female. Unlike other polygynandrous systems, genetic evidence indicates that multi-generational patterns of kinship occur among adult Veeries at our study site, and this was corroborated by the capture of an adult male in 2013 that had been banded as a nestling in 2011 at a nest attended by multiple male feeders.

RNA-Seq reveals infection-related global gene changes in Phytophthora phaseoli, the causal agent of lima bean downy mildew.

Lima bean is an important vegetable processing crop to the mid-Atlantic USA and is highly susceptible to the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora phaseoli, which causes downy mildew. Genetic resistance and fungicides are used to manage P. phaseoli and often fail.

A Bayesian model for gene family evolution.

Background: A birth and death process is frequently used for modeling the size of a gene family that may vary along the branches of a phylogenetic tree. Under the birth and death model, maximum likelihood methods have been developed to estimate the birth and death rate and the sizes of ancient gene families (numbers of gene copies at the internodes of the phylogenetic tree). This paper aims to provide a Bayesian approach for estimating parameters in the birth and death model.

Radiation hybrid mapping of the species cytoplasm-specific (scsae) gene in wheat.

Radiation hybrid (RH) mapping is based on radiation-induced chromosome breakage and analysis of chromosome segment retention or loss using molecular markers. In durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L., AABB), an alloplasmic durum line [(lo) durum] has been identified with chromosome 1D of T.

Molecular cytogenetic characterization of an alloplasmic durum wheat line with a portion of chromosome 1D of Triticum aestivum carrying the scs(ae) gene.

Triticum aestivum (2n = 6x = 42, AABBDD) with Triticum longissimum (2n = 2x = 14; S1S1) cytoplasm ((lo) cytoplasm) has normal fertility and plant vigor. However, the nucleus of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum (2n = 4x = 28, AABB)) is incompatible with the T. longissimum cytoplasm, producing non-viable progeny.

Synteny perturbations between wheat homoeologous chromosomes caused by locus duplications and deletions correlate with recombination rates.

Loci detected by Southern blot hybridization of 3,977 expressed sequence tag unigenes were mapped into 159 chromosome bins delineated by breakpoints of a series of overlapping deletions. These data were used to assess synteny levels along homoeologous chromosomes of the wheat A, B, and D genomes, in relation to both bin position on the centromere-telomere axis and the gradient of recombination rates along chromosome arms. Synteny level decreased with the distance of a chromosome region from the centromere.

The organization and rate of evolution of wheat genomes are correlated with recombination rates along chromosome arms.

Genes detected by wheat expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were mapped into chromosome bins delineated by breakpoints of 159 overlapping deletions. These data were used to assess the organizational and evolutionary aspects of wheat genomes. Relative gene density and recombination rate increased with the relative distance of a bin from the centromere.