Retention of genetic diversity in successive generations is key to successful ex situ programs and will become increasingly important to restore wild populations of threatened animals. When animal genealogy is partly unknown or gaps exist in studbook records, the application of molecular resources facilitates informed breeding. Here, we apply molecular resources to an ex situ breeding population of toucans (Ramphastidae), a bird family zoos commonly maintain. Toucans face population declines from illegal poaching and habitat degradation. We developed novel microsatellite markers using blood samples from 15 Keel-billed Toucans (Ramphastos sulfuratus Lesson 1830). Parentage of two individuals was known a priori, but possible sibship among 13 putative founders-including the parents-was unknown. We compared available avian heterologous and novel microsatellite markers to recover known relationships and reconstruct sibship. Eight of 61 heterologous markers amplified consistently and were polymorphic, but less so than the 18 novel markers. Known sibship (and three sibling pairs whose relatedness was unknown a priori) and paternity-though not maternity except in one case-were well-recovered using both likelihood and pairwise relatedness methods, when incorporating novel but not heterologous markers. Zoo researchers seeking microsatellite primer sets for their breeding toucan populations will likely benefit from our heterologous markers, which can be leveraged both to assess relatedness and select breeding pairs. We recommend that zoo biologists rely on species-specific primers and not optimize heterologous primers for toucan species without molecular resources. We conclude with a brief discussion of modern genotyping methods of interest to zoo researchers.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21792 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Changbiashan Key Laboratory of Biological Germplasm Resources Evaluation and Application, Tonghua Normal University, Dongchang District, Tonghua City, Jilin, China.
Adonis amurensis Regel et Radde is a remarkable and important spring ephemeral plant and gained considerable attention because of its remarkable medicinal properties. Extensive research has been conducted on its therapeutic applications, physical characteristics, flowering patterns, reproductive, cultural and molecular biology. However, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding regarding the metabolic changes associated with flower developmental stages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTheor Appl Genet
January 2025
Crop Research Institute, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, 730070, China.
A major locus SC9.1 was identified and finely mapped into a 92.68 Kb region, and longmi004412 was identified as the casual gene regulating brown seed color in broomcorn millet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvest Ophthalmol Vis Sci
January 2025
University of Coimbra, Coimbra Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research (iCBR), Faculty of Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal.
Purpose: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is usually diagnosed many years after diabetes onset. Indeed, an early diagnosis of DR remains a notable challenge, and, thus, developing novel approaches for earlier disease detection is of utmost importance. We aim to explore the potential of texture analysis of optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal images in detecting retinal changes in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic animals at "silent" disease stages when early retinal molecular and cellular changes that cannot be clinically detectable are already occurring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Integr Plant Biol
January 2025
Frontiers Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Key Laboratory of Crop Heterosis and Utilization (MOE), Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
Lodging reduces grain yield and quality in cereal crops. Lodging resistance is affected by the strength of the culm, which is influenced by the culm diameter, culm wall thickness, and cell wall composition. To explore the genetic architecture of culm diameter in rice (Oryza sativa), we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVasc Med
January 2025
Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) can lead to significant healthcare resource utilization (HcRU) and costs. First-line treatments such as direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOAC) and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) are utilized for VTE management. There are limited observational studies to determine which first-line drug for VTE is associated with lower HcRU and cost.
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