Elevated levels of exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) and airway hyperresponsiveness are intermediate phenotypes of asthma. Using population-based data collected from a sample of twins, the present authors estimated the relative contribution of genes, family environment and nonshared environmental influences to variations in eNO and airway responsiveness (AR). In addition, the genetic and environmental...

800x600 hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection is the main cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc). several factors such as serum hbv dna level, genotype and specific viral mutations have been clarified to determine disease progression of chronic hepatitis b. among these, mutations can also occur in chronic hbv patients with antiviral treatment such as lamivudine the...

Objective: Estimation of genetic parameters for Kleiber ratio (KR) and genetic trends for pre-weaning weights of Arabi sheep has not been previously conducted.Methods: Data and pedigree information were collected at the Khuzestan Ramin Agricultural and Natural Resources University, Animal Science Research Station, located in southwest Iran, from 2001 to 2008. (Co)variance components and corresp...

Evolutionary adaptation to a new environment depends on the availability of beneficial alleles. Beneficial alleles may appear as new mutations or may come from standing genetic variation—alleles already present in the population prior to the environmental change. Adaptation from standing genetic variation in sexually-reproducing populations is expected to be faster than from new mutations becau...

previous evidence has shown that the number of l and m cones in retina varies significantly between subjects. however, it is not clear how the variation of l/m ratio changes the behavioral performance of the subject. a model of transformation of data from retina to visual cortex for evaluation of various l/m cones ratios is presented. while l/m cone ratios close to 1 brings the best performance...

Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) has been increasingly utilized in genetic determinants of various inherited diseases. We identified a new variation in SERAC1 as the cause of 3-Methylglutaconic Aciduria (MEG), Deafness (D), Encephalopathy (E), and Leigh-like (L), MEGDEL syndrome using WES. We found an insertion, rs797045105 (chr6, 158571484, C>CCATG), in the SERAC1 gene with homozygous genotype in ...

Understanding how populations respond to rapid environmental change is critical both for preserving biodiversity and for human health. An increasing number of studies have shown that genetic variation that has no discernable effect under common ecological conditions can become amplified under stressful or novel conditions, suggesting that environmental change per se can provide the raw material...

The hypothesis that a component of genetic variation for polygenic fitness traits is maintained by environmental heterogeneity was tested using an experimental system involving two species of flour beetles, Tribolium castaneum and T. confusum. Replicated populations of each species from a number of environmental treatments were analyzed for various fitness components following almost 60 generat...