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35 results for “Breeding improvement”
Role of information in consumers' preferences for eco-sustainable genetic improvements in plant breeding - DATASET
<p>Data-set and variables description related to the paper titled “Role of information in consumers’ preferences for eco-sustainable genetic improvements in plant breeding“, by Massimiliano Borrello, Luigi Cembalo, Riccardo Vecchio. PLOS-ONE, 2021. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255130</p>
Data from: Winter game crop plots for gamebirds retain hedgerow breeding songbirds in an improved grassland landscape
<p>The cause of recent population declines in some farmland / hedgerow breeding bird species in the UK is related to a lack of cover and food resources in winter. In improved grassland areas some of those declines have been particularly acute and some have been shown to be related to the availability of grass and weed seed in winter. The provision of seed-bearing crops as part of AES options has been shown to benefit some of these birds. Game crop plots sown on shooting estates for holding and driving gamebirds in autumn and winter have been shown to hold relatively high densities of farmland and wood-edge birds during the winter.</p> <p>We studied breeding songbirds in hedges in a primarily improved grassland area in the SW of England where there are some large shooting estates that sow relatively large game crop plots (1 - 5 ha) in the landscape. In this study we found that otherwise similar hedges in terms of size and density near to those winter game crop plots, had between 1.5 and 2 times as many breeding resident songbirds per unit length the following spring compared to hedges further away from game crop plots. This was despite game management in these plots being wound down during February and in many cases, the crops themselves being removed by mid-March. Hedges within approximately 350m from game crop plots had more breeding birds. We discuss possible mechanisms and suggest that some passerines preferentially establish breeding territories in hedges near to game crops in late winter. We suggest how to distribute game crop plots to maximise any benefit in an improved grassland landscape.</p>
Data from: Winter game crop plots for gamebirds retain hedgerow breeding songbirds in an improved grassland landscape
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Data from: Forest tree breeding using genomic Markov causal models: A new approach to genomic tree breeding improvement
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Data from: Trade-offs between age-related breeding improvement and survival senescence in highly polygynous elephant seals: dominant males always do better
<ol> <li>Life history trade-off theory predicts that current reproduction can negatively affect survival and future reproduction. Few studies have assessed breeding costs for males of polygynous species compared to females, despite substantial variation in breeding success among individual males (e.g. subordinate <i>cf</i>. dominant breeders). Specifically, differentiating between the cost of attending breeding seasons, and the additional cost of successfully securing and mating females is lacking.</li> <li>We investigated whether trade-offs are present in the highly polygynous male southern elephant seal (<i>Mirounga leonina</i>) using 34-years of individual-level data. We compare age-specific survival, recruitment and future breeding success probabilities of pre-breeders (males yet to recruit) and breeders (subordinate and dominant social ranks) using multievent models.</li> <li>Pre-breeders and breeders of overlapping ages had similar survival probabilities, suggesting that there was no attendance cost for early recruits. In addition, the probability of recruiting as a dominant breeder never exceeded recruitment probability as a subordinate breeder of the same age. Therefore, older pre-breeders that delayed attendance costs generally did not improve their breeding success (probability of being dominant) at recruitment more than younger recruits. Rather, recruitment age may be a function of individual quality, with lower quality individuals requiring more time to socially mature.</li> <li>When comparing subordinate and dominant breeders, we found clear evidence for survival senescence, with subordinate breeders having a higher baseline mortality. In contrast, age-specific future breeding success (probability of being dominant at <i>t</i>+1) increased with age, with dominant breeders maintaining higher subsequent breeding success than subordinate breeders.</li> <li>The opposite trends in survival and future breeding success for both subordinate and dominant breeders may indicate a lifetime, population-level trade-off. However, we found no evidence to suggest that being a dominant breeder consecutively (and having a higher accumulated breeding cost) accelerated the rate of senescence when compared to individuals that were previously subordinate.</li> <li>Thus, males experienced actuarial senescence regardless of social rank, with dominant (and possibly high quality) breeders showing a reduced trade-off between survival and future breeding success. We make several novel contributions to understanding polygynous male life histories and southern elephant seal demography.</li> </ol>
Data from: Specialisation reduces foraging effort and improves breeding performance in a generalist bird
While competition is generally presumed to promote intraspecific niche diversification, populations of many apparent generalist species still exhibit considerable individual variation in foraging specialisation. This suggests that different cost-benefit trade-offs may underlie individual variation in foraging specialisation. Indeed, while specialisation may improve foraging efficiency by a better knowledge of the spatio-temporal availability of resources, individuals may also become more vulnerable to fluctuations in these resources. In this study, we used multi-year GPS tracking data of 19 Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) breeding along the Belgian coast to assess whether foraging effort and reproductive success varied among different levels of foraging specialisation. First, we quantified spatial and habitat specialisation during incubation and chick-rearing for 31 individual breeding cycles during which birds raised young until the age of 21 days. Next, we tested whether spatial and habitat specialisation were related to the daily distance covered (as a proxy for foraging effort), and to chick growth (as a proxy for reproductive success). We found that birds primarily varied in their extent of habitat specialisation. Habitat specialisation was associated with reduced daily distances covered and increased offspring growth rates, in particular the growth rate of the youngest chicks. Yet, positive effects of habitat specialisation on chick growth decreased at high levels of spatial specialisation. Our results thus demonstrate fitness benefits of foraging specialisation during our five-year study period, but also highlight the need for longer-term studies as environmental changes may cause benefits to vary throughout a lifetime.
Supplementary files from: Improving inference and avoiding over-interpretation of hidden-state diversification models: Specialized plant breeding has no effect on diversification in frogs
<p>The hidden-state speciation and extinction (HiSSE) model helps avoid spurious results when testing whether a character affects diversification rates. However, care must be taken to optimally analyze models and interpret results. Recently, Tonini et al. (2020; TEA hereafter) studied anuran (frog and toad) diversification with HiSSE methods. They concluded that their focal state, breeding in phytotelmata, increases net diversification rates. Yet this conclusion is counterintuitive, because the state that purportedly increases net diversification rates is 14 times rarer among species than the alternative. Herein I revisit TEA's analyses and demonstrate problems with inferring model likelihoods, conducting post-hoc tests, and interpreting results. I also re-evaluate their top models and find that diverse strategies are necessary to reach the parameter values that maximize each model's likelihood. In contrast to TEA, I find no support for an effect of phytotelm breeding on net diversification rates in Neotropical anurans. In particular, even though the most highly supported models include the focal character, averaging parameter estimates over hidden states shows that the focal character does not influence diversification rates. Finally, I suggest ways to better analyze and interpret complex diversification models – both state-dependent and beyond – for future studies in other organisms.</p>
Data from: Do ditch-side electrical fences improve the breeding productivity of ground-nesting waders?
<p class="MsoNormal">I<span>nsufficient reproduction as a consequence of predation on eggs and chicks is a major determinant of population decline in ground-nesting birds, including waders. For many populations, there is an urgent need to maintain breeding populations at key sites, and conservation practitioners need to find viable management solutions to reduce predation.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">One tool available to the practitioner are fences that exclude key predators from areas containing breeding birds. Temporary electric fencing is an increasingly popular predator exclusion intervention, but such fences have costs associated with purchase and the time needed to erect and maintain them. Their effectiveness and optimal application are also frequently questioned.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We evaluate the use of temporary ditch-side four-strand electric fences in lowland grasslands in two countries, The Netherlands and England, in areas containing high densities of breeding waders.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In both countries and in all years, godwit and lapwing nest survival was significantly higher within areas enclosed by ditch-side electric fences. Brood survival, assessed for godwits in The Netherlands, was also higher within fenced areas in all years. This demonstrates that using temporary electric fences to enclose ground-nesting birds can be an effective tool for improving breeding productivity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In our study, closely managed electric fences were effective at excluding red foxes <em>Vulpes vulpes</em>, but not avian and other mammalian predators. The positive effect that electric fencing had on nest and brood survival therefore likely results from a reduction in the total number of visits by mammalian predators, and especially visits by foxes.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Although it requires a substantial time investment throughout the period of use, our temporary electric fence design provides flexibility compared to other fence designs when it comes to enclosing different areas within a season and between years, as the targets for protection change or as land and flood management dictate. <span>This conservation intervention can help buy the time required to develop and implement longer term solutions for application at larger scales.</span></p>
Recent breeding experience improves egg ejection behaviour
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Data from: Trade-offs between age-related breeding improvement and survival senescence in highly polygynous elephant seals: dominant males always do better
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Data from: Do ditch-side electrical fences improve the breeding productivity of ground-nesting waders?
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Data from: Specialisation reduces foraging effort and improves breeding performance in a generalist bird
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Devastating disease can cause increased breeding effort and success that improves population resilience
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Supplementary files from: Improving inference and avoiding over-interpretation of hidden-state diversification models: Specialized plant breeding has no effect on diversification in frogs
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Data from: Mate fidelity improves survival and breeding propensity of a long-lived bird
<p>1. Evolutionary and behavioral ecologists have long been interested in factors shaping the variation in mating behavior observed in nature. Whereas, much of the research on this topic has focused on the consequences of mate choice and mate change on annual reproductive success, studies of a potential positive link between mate fidelity and adult demographic rates have been comparatively rare. This is particularly true for long-lived birds with multi-year, socially monogamous pair bonds.</p> <p>2. We used a 26-year capture-mark-recapture dataset of 3,330 black brent (<i>Branta bernicla nigricans</i>) to test whether breeding with a familiar mate improved future breeding propensity and survival. We predicted that experienced breeders nesting with a new partner would have rates of survival similar to familiar pairs because long-lived species avoid jeopardizing survival since their lifetime fitness is sensitive to this vital rate. In contrast, we expected that any costs of breeding with a new partner would be paid through skipping the subsequent breeding attempt.</p> <p>3. We found that unfamiliar pairs had lower subsequent breeding propensity than faithful partners. However, contrary to our expectations, individuals breeding with a new mate also suffered reduced survival.</p> <p>4. These results add to a small number of studies indicating that a positive relationship between mate retention and adult demographic rates may exist in a diverse array of avian species. Given these results, researchers should consider costs of mate change that extend beyond within-season reproductive success to fully understand the potential adaptive basis for perennial social monogamy. We caution that if mate retention enhances survival prospects, improvements in annual reproductive success with pair-bond length could be a secondary factor favoring perennial social monogamy, particularly in species with slower life history strategies. Further, cases where annual reproductive success does not improve with pair-bond duration, yet multi-year pair bonds are common, could be explained by benefits afforded by mate fidelity to adult vital rates.</p>
Sequenced-based paternity analysis to improve breeding and identify self-incompatibility loci in intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium)
<p>In outcrossing species such as intermediate wheatgrass (IWG, Thinopyrum intermedium), polycrossing is often used to generate novel recombinants through each cycle of selection, but it cannot track pollen-parent pedigrees and it is unknown how self-incompatibility (SI) genes may limit the number of unique crosses obtained. This study investigated the potential of using next-generation sequencing to assign paternity and identify putative SI loci in IWG. Using a reference population of 380 individuals made from controlled crosses of 64 parents, paternity was assigned with 92% agreement using Cervus software. Using this approach, 80% of 4158 progeny (n = 3342) from a polycross of 89 parents were assigned paternity. Of the 89 pollen parents, 82 (92%) were represented with 1633 unique full-sib families representing 42% of all potential crosses. The number of progeny per successful pollen parent ranged from 1 to 123, with number of inflorescences per pollen parent significantly correlated to the number of progeny (r = 0.54, p < 0.001). Shannon's diversity index, assessing the total number and representation of families, was 7.33 compared to a theoretical maximum of 8.98. To test our hypothesis on the impact of SI genes, a genome-wide association study of the number of progeny observed from the 89 parents identified genetic effects related to non-random mating, including marker loci located near putative SI genes. Paternity testing of polycross progeny can impact future breeding gains by being incorporated in breeding programs to optimize polycross methodology, maintain genetic diversity, and reveal genetic architecture of mating patterns.</p>
Data from: Particle backtracking improves breeding subpopulation discrimination and natal-source identification in mixed populations
We provide a novel method to improve the use of natural tagging approaches for subpopulation discrimination and source-origin identification in aquatic and terrestrial animals with a passive dispersive phase. Our method integrates observed site-referenced biological information on individuals in mixed populations with a particle-tracking model to retrace likely dispersal histories prior to capture (i.e., particle backtracking). To illustrate and test our approach, we focus on western Lake Erie's yellow perch (Perca flavescens) population during 2006–2007, using microsatellite DNA and otolith microchemistry from larvae and juveniles as natural tags. Particle backtracking showed that not all larvae collected near a presumed hatching location may have originated there, owing to passive drift during the larval stage that was influenced by strong river- and wind-driven water circulation. Re-assigning larvae to their most probable hatching site (based on probabilistic dispersal trajectories from the particle backtracking model) improved the use of genetics and otolith microchemistry to discriminate among local breeding subpopulations. This enhancement, in turn, altered (and likely improved) the estimated contributions of each breeding subpopulation to the mixed population of juvenile recruits. Our findings indicate that particle backtracking can complement existing tools used to identify the origin of individuals in mixed populations, especially in flow-dominated systems.
Fig. 4 in Solanum insanum L. (subgenus Leptostemonum Bitter, Solanaceae), the neglected wild progenitor of eggplant (S. melongena L.): a review of taxonomy, characteristics and uses aimed at its enhancement for improved eggplant breeding
Fig. 4 Intermediate fruit morphology of an interspecific hybrid (INS1.2 X MEL 5.5) as compared to the parental lines S. insanum (INS1) and S. melongena (MEL5)
Fig. 2 in Solanum insanum L. (subgenus Leptostemonum Bitter, Solanaceae), the neglected wild progenitor of eggplant (S. melongena L.): a review of taxonomy, characteristics and uses aimed at its enhancement for improved eggplant breeding
Fig. 2 Morphology of Solanum insanum. A Flower from wild c population in Sri Lanka (abandoned field in Anradhapura district, North Central province). B Flower from Sri Lankan accession INS2 cultivated in Spain. C Flower from accession INS3 of unknown origin cultivated in Spain. D Longitudinal section of the flower (X10) of accession INS2. E Fruit without prickly calyx (cultivated Sri Lankan accession in Spain) (accession INS2). F The fruit with prickly calyx (Sri Lankan accession INS1 cultivated in Spain). G The fruit without prickly calyx from a wild population in Sri Lanka (forest boundary in Matale district, Central province). H Longitudinal section of a fruit of accession INS1. I Microscopic view of seeds. J Stem with sharp and slightly curved prickles of accession INS1. K Prostrate form of plant from a home garden. L Adaxial surface of leaf with dark purple prickles (K, L both Anradhapura district, North Central province, Sri Lanka). (Color figure online)
Fig. 3 in Solanum insanum L. (subgenus Leptostemonum Bitter, Solanaceae), the neglected wild progenitor of eggplant (S. melongena L.): a review of taxonomy, characteristics and uses aimed at its enhancement for improved eggplant breeding
Fig. 3 Geographical distribution of Solanum insanum L. Apparent large gaps in the distribution of this very common species are due to a variety of factors. Among them are (1) our not having seen many local herbaria in India or Myanmar, (2) the lack of specificity in localities in many early collections from India (see Endersby 2008), and (3) possible collecting deficit, especially in Myanmar and Sumatra
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