A review is presented of the genetic and physiological aspects of growth, body composition and feed efficiency in mice. The genetic parameters considered are: nature and extent of within and between-line genetic variation for body weight and growth rate; direct and correlated responses to selection for body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed efficiency; direct genetic effects of the offs...

Mitochondrial biogenesis is a key physiological process that is required for normal growth and development and for maintenance of ongoing cellular energy requirements during aging. Of equivalent and or greater importance is the regulated enhancement of mitochondrial biogenesis upon physiological demand coupled to multiple cellular insults. Basically, cellular survival mechanisms following a var...

A variation on the classic ablation method was used to determine whether O(2) uptake or ionoregulation is the first to shift from the skin to the gills in developing zebrafish, Danio rerio. Zebrafish larvae, ranging in age from 3 to 21 days postfertilization, were prevented from ventilating their gills and forced to rely on cutaneous processes by exposing them to one of two anaesthetics (tricai...

Considerable progress has been made over the last 30 years in the United States to develop systems that describe protein requirements and protein adequacy of diets for dairy cows. Ration formulation systems have moved from balancing diets for crude protein (CP) and digestible protein to the use of nutritional models (e.g., NRC, 2001; CNCPS, CPM-Dairy, and Amino Cow) that recognize that the cow ...

In order to survive periods of adverse cold climatic conditions, plant requirements are satisfied by means of physiological adaptations to prevent cells from freezing. Thus, the growth of woody plants in temperate regions slows down and they enter into a physiological state called dormancy. In order to identify the chilling and heat requirements to overcome the dormancy period of Cupressaceae p...