5-Methylcytosine (5mC) is a major epigenetic modification in animals. The programming and inheritance of parental DNA methylomes ensures the compatibility for totipotency and embryonic development. In vertebrates, the DNA methylomes of sperm and oocyte are significantly different. During early embryogenesis, the paternal and maternal methylomes will reset to the same state. Herein, we focus on ...

The aim of the present study was to identify polymorphisms in the leptin gene of 112 pigs and compare the maternal and paternal lineage of Pietrain and Large White breeds that underwent a divergent selection for over 30 years. DNA samples extracted from the blood of these animals were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and genotyped by restriction fragment length polymorphism using the rest...

After being paired with females, male prairie voles show major changes in their social behaviors among which is an increase in paternal responsiveness. These changes are accompanied by fluctuations in the density of the [Argelvasopressin-immunoreactive (AVP-ir) fibers in the lateral septum, suggesting that septal AVP might be involved in these changes. To explore a possible involvement of septa...

Studies presented here show that perinatal exposure to anti-IgD allotype antibodies induces a persistant IgG-allotype suppression in the mouse that differs markedly from either the short-term or chronic allotype suppressions induced by antibodies to IgG or IgM allotypes. This novel form of allotype suppression induced by injecting neonatal BALB/c x SJL mice with monoclonal antibody to the pater...

Mitochondria have an active role in germ line development, and their inheritance dynamics are relevant to this process. Recently, a novel protein (RPHM21) was shown to be encoded in sperm by the male-transmitted mtDNA of Ruditapes philippinarum, a species with Doubly Uniparental Inheritance (DUI) of mitochondria. In silico analyses suggested a viral origin of RPHM21, and we hypothesized that th...

The present study describes approaches for the identification of individual beech trees using maternal tissues from their seeds or fruits. Four microsatellite markers were used for genetic analysis of seedlots from Fagus orientalis Lipsky, a highly out-crossing tree species. Seeds from 11 single-tree harvests belonging to one population, (7 seeds from each), as well as non-paranchymatic materna...

Mice expressing the Torpedo acetylcholine receptor alpha-chain as a neo-self-Ag exhibit a reduced frequency of T cells responding to the immunodominant epitope Talpha146-162 indicating a degree of tolerance. We characterized tolerance induction in these animals by analyzing the residual Talpha146-162-responsive T cell population and comparing it to that of nontransgenic littermates. Using CD4(h...

Heritability and genetic correlations realized from both single-trait and antagonistic index selection were compared with paternal half-sib estimates. Primary attention was focused on the genetic correlation between six-week body weight and six-week tail length. Parameters realized from single-trait selection were in excellent agreement with paternal half-sib estimates. However, the realized ge...

Our objective in this study was to evaluate whether a group of paternally related, subadult baboons (Papio cynocephalus) would preferentially interact with kin or nonkin when they had been raised apart from kin other than their mothers. Subjects and their mothers were removed from the breeding group and placed in alternate housing within 24 h after birth to ensure that the subjects would not ha...