Software was developed to predict selection responses and rates of inbreeding from livestock breeding programs. Variance components are needed as input for the program, which subsequently enables the user to evaluate various breeding program designs. Consequently, breeding program structures with discrete (e.g., fish or poultry breeding) or overlapping generations (e.g., pig or cattle breeding)...

Introduction Today, a wide range of molecular tools and powerful computers provides us with an unprecedented capacity to generate data that reveals the architecture of genomes, genes, traits, and how these contribute to the value of the germplasm units (populations, lines, varieties, hybrids, cultivars) used in breeding programs. Complementary work is characterising the key environmental variab...

Achieving a consistently successful A.I.-breeding program in a cow-calf operation requires attention to those heifers and cows not having normal estrous cycles (cycling) at the beginning of the breeding season. Because so many factors contribute to whether breeding females are cycling, including weather patterns, nutrition (availability of native forages or stored feeds), age or days since calv...

The objectives of this study were to assess the genetic variability of haploids (2n = 2x = 24) extracted from tetraploid Solanum tuberosum through 4x x 2x crosses with Solanum phureja. Molecular and phenotypic analyses were performed to fingerprint the genotypes used and to evaluate their potential use in breeding programs. AFLP analysis revealed the presence of specific bands derived from the ...

Genetic diversity in breeding programs can be impaired by fixation of alleles derived from a limited number of founder lines. This is demonstrated with the use of a solid-stem trait derived from the Portuguese landrace 'S-615' over 70 yrs ago that is widely used to resist the wheat stem sawfly ( Norton, WSS) in North America. The objective of this study was to evaluate haplotype diversity under...