Plant breeders and nematologists have developed improved cultivars of important crop species with resistance to plant-parasitic nematodes. The effectiveness of these breeding efforts has depended on the availability of efficient screening procedures, identification of adequate sources of durable resistance, nature of the nematode feeding habit, and knowledge of the inheritance of resistance. Th...

Background The efficiency of plant breeding depends mainly on two actions of the breeder: creation and subsequent identification of superior genotypes. In both actions, selection plays a fundamental role in the definition of crosses to be performed, with interest in creating new genotypes and identifying superior trees to be used commercially. The great attraction of molecular tools for plant b...

To better understand the relative importance of the multi-purpose functions of small ruminants for their urban owners and related breeding practices including selection criteria, we undertook a comparative analysis across the West African cities of Kano (Nigeria), Bobo Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) and Sikasso (Mali). Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect the required information from ...

The objectives of this study were to describe and evaluate potential drivers of genetic structure in Canadian breeding populations of the Ovenbird, Seiurus aurocapilla. We performed genetic analyses on feather samples of individuals from six study sites using nuclear microsatellites. We also assessed species identity and population genetic structure of quill mites (Acariformes, Syringophilidae)...

In Bangladesh, a science based systematically organized pragmatic breeding policy has never been formulated and adopted. In breeding research and development projects, perspectives of stakeholders like researchers, extension agents and farmers on criteria for selection of breeds for adaptation in the country have not been adequately considered. In this paper, opinions of a sample of 128 univers...

Avian pox, a disease caused by avipoxviruses, is a major cause of decline of some endangered bird species. While its impact has been assessed in several species in the wild, effects of the disease in conservation breeding have never been studied. Houbara bustard species (Chlamydotis undulata and Chlamydotis macqueenii), whose populations declined in the last decades, have been captive bred for ...

Breeding new cultivars is a slow and expensive process, but genetic screening tools exist to improve efficiency. We employed the marker-assisted breeding (MAB) Pipeline approach to facilitate routine use of MAB in the Washington apple breeding program. This study traced the journey of one marker-locus-trait (M-L-T) association from publication through high-throughput PCR-based genetic testing t...

Ideally, the ITER base blanket would provide the necessary tritium for the reactor to be self-sufficient during operation, while having minimal impact on the overall reactor cost, reliability and safety. A solid breeder blanket has been developed in the CDA phase in an attempt to achieve such objectives. The reference solid breeder base blanket configurations at the end of the CDA phase has man...