Genetic Parents Research Articles

NS Pudarka: A new winter wheat cultivar

The high-yielding, medium late winter wheat cultivar NS Pudarka was developed by crossing genetic divergent parents: line NMNH-07 and cv. NS 40S and Simonida. In cultivar NS Pudarka genes responsible for high yield potential, very good technological quality, resistance to lodging, low temperature and diseases, were successfully combined. It was registered by Ministry of agriculture, forestry and water management of Serbia Republic in 2013. This cultivar has wide adaptability and stability of yield that enable growing in different environments with optimal agricultural practice. On the base of technological quality this cultivar belongs to the second quality class, A2 farinograph subgroup and second technological group.

The “Wanted” Child: Identifying the Gaps and Challenges in Commercial Surrogacy in India

Of the many reproductive procedures available in modern times, one such procedure is surrogacy. The Indian Council of Medical Research defines surro-gacy as “… an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry a pregnancy that is genetically unrelated to her and her husband, with the intention to carry it to term and hand over the child to the genetic parents for whom she is acting as a surrogate.”

Genetic structure analysis of sorghum parent lines based on SSR markers

Genetic structure of 142 parent lines of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] was analyzed using model-based approach based on SSR markers. Forty-one selected from 103 SSR markers were used to analyze the parent lines, which generated 189 alleles revealed by each marker ranging from 2 to 11 with an average of 4.6 per marker. The polymorphic information content (PIC) value was 0.543 with a range of 0.089 to 0.850. All the parent lines were assigned to 7 subgroups, named Kafir, Kaoliang, Feterita, Shallu, Hegari, Milo and Durra. Parent lines without clear pedigree record were clustered into their corresponding groups, and genetic components of each line were estimated by Q-values. Information of this study would be useful for breeders to conclude their genetic background and select appropriate parents for germplasm improvement and hybrid breeding, and thus improve the efficiency of breeding programs.

Environmental transmission of a personality trait: foster parent exploration behaviour predicts offspring exploration behaviour in zebra finches

Consistent behavioural differences among individuals are common in many species and can have important effects on offspring fitness. To understand such 'personality' variation, it is important to determine the mode of inheritance, but this has been quantified for only a few species. Here, we report results from a breeding experiment in captive zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, in which we cross-fostered offspring to disentangle the importance of genetic and non-genetic transmission of behaviour. Genetic and foster-parents' exploratory type was measured in a novel environment pre-breeding and offspring exploratory type was assessed at adulthood. Offspring exploratory type was predicted by the exploratory behaviour of the foster but not the genetic parents, whereas offspring size was predicted by genetic but not foster-parents' size. Other aspects of the social environment, such as rearing regime (uni- versus biparental), hatching position, brood size or an individual's sex did not influence offspring exploration. Our results therefore indicate that non-genetic transmission of behaviour can play an important role in shaping animal personality variation.

QTL mapping and correlation analysis for 1000-grain weight and percentage of grains with chalkiness in rice

The study of 1000-grain weight (TGW) and percentage of grains with chalkiness (PGWC) is very important in rice. In this study, a set of introgression lines (ILs), derived from Sasanishiki/Habataki with Sasanishiki as the recurrent parent, were used to detect correlations and quantitative trait loci (QTL) on TGW and PGWC in two different environments. Phenotypic correlation analysis showed that there was no significant correlation between TGW and PGWC in both environments, which indicated that the linkage of TGW and PGWC traits could be broken via suitable population. A total of 20 QTL were detected in both environments, nine QTL for 1000-paddy-grain weight (PTGW), five QTL for 1000-brown-grain weight (BTGW) and six QTL for percentage of grains with chalkiness (PGWC). Moreover, five QTL, qPTGW3, qPTGW8.2, qPTGW11.1 for PTGW and qPGWC1.1, qPGWC1.2 for PGWC, were stably expressed in both environments. Phenotypic values were significantly different (P < 0.01) between the introgression lines carrying these five QTL alleles and the genetic background parent, Sasanishiki. The introgression lines carrying these QTL also represent a useful genetic resource in the context of rice yield and quality improvement via a design-breeding approach.

Environmental and Parental Influences on Offspring Health and Growth in Great Tits (Parus major)

Sexual selection requires both that there is heritable variation in traits related to fitness, and that either some of this variation is linked to traits of the parents, and/or that there are direct benefits of choosing particular individuals as mates. This suggests that if direct benefits are important offspring performance should be predicted by traits of the rearing adults. But if indirect benefits are more significant offspring performance should be predicted by traits of the adults at the nest-of-origin. We conducted cross-fostering experiments in great tits (Parus major) over four years, in two of which we manipulated environmental conditions by providing supplemental food. In a third year, some nestlings were directly supplemented with carotenoids. Nestlings in broods whose rearing adults received supplemental food were heavier and had improved immune responses even when controlling for body mass. Nestling immune function was related to measures of the yellow plumage color of both the rearing male and the putative father. Nestling body mass was influenced by the coloration of both the rearing female and the genetic mother. Our results suggest that features of both their social and putative genetic parents influence nestling health and growth. From this it would appear that females could be gaining both direct and indirect benefits through mate choice of male plumage traits and that it would be possible for males to similarly gain through mate choice of female traits.

Ostrich chick humoral immune responses and growth rate are predicted by parental immune responses and paternal colouration

One of the most important measures of offspring performance is growth rate, which is often traded off against another important survival trait, immune function. A particular feature of ostrich chicks maintained in farmed environments is that cohorts of chicks vary widely in size. As parents can have a profound effect on the phenotype and fitness of their offspring, we investigated whether chick growth and immune defence were related to variation in levels of immune defence in their genetic parents. As secondary sexual traits of sires could serve as indicators of male quality, and be used in female mating decisions, we also investigated whether chick growth rate and immune defence were related to male plumage and integumentary colouration. We found that offspring growth rates and humoral responses were related to the humoral responses of their parents, suggesting that at least some components of humoral immune capacity are heritable. The white colour of male ostrich feathers was correlated to the humoral response and growth rate of their offspring, suggesting that this visual cue involved in the male courtship display could serve as an important signal to females of male quality, thereby forming the basis of mate choice in this species.

The exaggerated begging behaviour of an obligate avian brood parasite is shared with a nonparasitic close relative

Offspring signalling models predict that the begging displays of obligate brood parasites are more intense than nonparasitic species because parasitic young are never reared by their genetic parents and often compete against unrelated host young during development. The brown-headed cowbird, Molothrus ater, has been described as having exaggerated begging relative to nonparasitic species, but an effective test of this idea is lacking because previous studies have not controlled for evolutionary history while simultaneously standardizing rearing conditions. We quantified the begging intensity of cowbirds and the closely related, nonparasitic red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, when both species experienced identical rearing conditions in two distinct nest environments: reared alone by a small cowbird host, or reared with two host young by a moderate-sized cowbird host. Against theoretical predictions, we found that in both nest environments four components of the cowbird begging display were similar to (or less intense than) blackbird begging displays (i.e. latency to beg, begging score, call rate and call amplitude) when nestlings were tested across a gradient of short-term need. Our results provide the first experimental evidence that a closely related, yet nonparasitic, species shares an exaggerated begging display with a brood-parasitic species when reared under conditions typically experienced by parasitic offspring. We discuss three nonexclusive explanations for our findings: (1) relatedness among cowbird nestmates reduced cowbird begging intensity (kin selection hypothesis), (2) reduced body condition of blackbirds elevated their begging intensity (body condition hypothesis) and (3) intense competition in blackbird nest environments led to increased blackbird begging intensity (competitive environment hypothesis).

Attitudes towards embryo donation among infertile couples with frozen embryos

What are the attitudes towards different aspects of embryo donation among Swedish infertile couples who have surplus cryopreserved embryos? Nearly three-quarters of infertile couples with surplus embryos were in favour of embryo donation. A majority of respondents were also in favour of embryos being donated for research. Currently, embryo donation to other infertile couples is prohibited by law in Sweden. Encouraging results have been published from countries allowing embryo donation, although it is a complex procedure associated with many emotional, ethical, legal and psychosocial aspects. This cross-sectional study included 471 infertile couples (942 patients) treated during the period March 2006 to March 2009. Infertile couples who had been treated at a Swedish university-based hospital and private IVF clinic and who had cryopreserved embryos were sent questionnaires with questions regarding socio-demographic data and their attitudes towards embryo donation. The response rate to the questionnaire was 58%. Of the respondents, 76% supported the donation of surplus embryos to other infertile couples, but there were divided opinions regarding the disclosure of the genetic parents' identities. Close to 60% of the participants indicated that donations of embryos should be allowed for research and about 45% of the participants approved donations of embryos to single women. The relatively low response rate and the hypothetical nature of the questions may limit the validity of the results. The results from the study indicate that cryopreserved embryos may be available for donation to other infertile couples, particularly where restrictions can be set on recipient characteristics.

On the Right to Know and The Use of Double Standards: Response to Open Peer Commentaries on “The Right to Know Your Genetic Parents: From Open Identity Gamete Donation to Routine Paternity Testing”

In our article “The right to know your genetic parents: from open-identity gamete donation to routine paternity testing,” (2013) we did not argue for a fundamental right of both donor and naturally...

Whose Right to Know? The Subjectivity of Mothers in Mandatory Paternity Testing

Although anonymous gamete donation is the norm in the United States (US), recent scholarship has queried whether Western European prohibitions on anonymity could or should be applied in the states (Cohen 2012, Cahn 2012). Most recently, An Ravelingien and Guido Pennings’ “The Right to Know Your Genetic Parents: From Open-Identity Gamete Donation to Routine Paternity Testing,” uses the argument for open-identity sperm donation as the premise for broader social policy regarding paternity identification. The authors argue that if anonymous sperm donation is forbidden, then anonymous or misattributed paternity in coital reproduction should also be forbidden. Ravelingien and Pennings recognize that paternity testing concerns the rights of all of the members of a family unit, yet they assert that potential benefits for a child—in genetic information and potential family formation—outweigh any incursions on other individuals’ rights. While we agree that knowledge of one’s genetic origins should not be dependent on the mode of conception, we argue that Ravelingien and Pennings’ analysis of rights creates a problematic hierarchy of interests as their analysis fails to locate a central subject in mandatory paternity testing: the mother. This absence of the mother is especially troubling in light of institutional enforcement of paternity identification in welfare programs in US political history.

Routine Paternity Testing: Finding the Right Ethical Paradigm

Ravelingien and Pennings's article, “The Right to Know Your Genetic Parents: From Open-Identity Gamete Donation to Routine Paternity Testing” (2013), is a thought-provoking defense of an uncommon p...

Inferred kinship patterns reveal low levels of extra-pair paternity in the endangered Neotropical Jabiru Stork (Jabiru mycteria, Aves: Ciconiiformes)

The present study inferred the genetic mating system in a natural breeding population of the Jabiru Stork (Jabiru mycteria), a Neotropical wading bird considered endangered in part of its distribution range. Based on data from eight microsatellite loci, maximum-likelihood kinship reconstruction techniques, parentage assignment analyses and effective population size (Ne) estimates were applied to samples collected in the Brazilian Pantanal wetland (N=45 nestlings from 20 nests; N=17 shed adult feathers from 11 nests). The relationship diagnosis was determined for most of the complete clutches (86.66%): 92.31% were full siblings and 7.69% were half siblings. Shed feathers collected from the nests matched the genetic parents of the offspring in 80% of cases. Feathers collected from the ground below the nests were compatible with the putative parents in 41.67% of cases. A mean Ne of 35 reproductive individuals was inferred, corresponding to an Ne/Nc ratio of 0.09, which is similar to the ratio found in populations of a number of different wild animals. The higher proportion of full siblings identified in the broods suggests that genetic monogamy is the prevalent mating system in the Jabiru Stork, while the detection of half siblings suggests some degree of extra-pair paternity. The present findings are in agreement with previous ecological observations of social monogamy in this species, despite the isolated evidence of extra-pair copulation events. This study also demonstrates the usefulness of a noninvasive approach to sampling adults and performing parentage and relatedness analyses in an elusive, threatened species.

Begging response of gull chicks to the red spot on the parental bill

In some animals, offspring begging is elicited by parents through behavioural or morphological signals. The red spot on the lower mandible in adult gulls is one of the best-known examples of a signal triggering chick begging. We examined whether the begging response of chicks (pecking for food and the chatter call for drawing parental attention) was affected by the spot size within the natural range of variation on a dummy head. Using a cross-fostering experiment, we examined whether these responses covary with the size of the genetic or social parent's spot. We found that the natural variation in size of this parental signal strongly influenced intensity of chick begging. Pecking increased when chicks were stimulated by a larger red spot. Additionally, pecking intensity increased in chicks reared by mothers with a large red spot, suggesting that this begging component is influenced by previous experience. In contrast, chick hatching order affected the number of chatter calls produced in relation to the size of the red spot on the dummy, suggesting the presence of different begging strategies according to brood hierarchy. The differential call response to a small/large red spot on the dummy was positively correlated with the original mothers’ red spot size and negatively with that of the original fathers. These results suggest a genetic correlation between biased chick response for a large spot and parental signal in contrasting patterns for mothers and fathers. Our results suggest that the parental red spot and offspring begging are traits subject to coevolution.

Egging on Lesbian Maternity: The Legal Implications of Tri-Gametic in Vitro Fertilization

Several assisted reproductive technologies exist for lesbians and lesbian couples to create life. While many of these techniques, such as artificial insemination or surrogacy, are effective for embryo creation, they often lead to legally unpredictable and unstable parental rights for mothers. New and not yet widely used forms of assisted reproductive technologies allow two women to create an embryo that utilizes the genetic material of each, rather than relying on genetic material of a sperm donor. These procedures, not available in any major fertility clinic and not yet officially named, are referred to in this article as Tri-Gametic In Vitro Fertilization (TGIVF).This article submits that the use of TGIVF will allow lesbian couples to create families in a way that is more legally secure and predictable. Three situations illustrate how current statutory law and case law fall short with traditional methods of assisted reproductive technologies, and how TGIVF can strengthen parental rights for lesbian couples. First, under state statutes and case law, when a sperm donor in an insemination case tries to assert parental rights after donation, he has traditionally been able to rely on his genetic connection to claim such rights. With TGIVF, the court should see his role differently, in that he only donates the sperm casing and no genetic information. Second, a TGIVF donor may attempt to liken his role in donation of sperm casing to that of a gestational surrogate, arguing that each plays a crucial role in reproduction. Even if a TGIVF donor can overcome the hurdles that a surrogate must overcome to gain parental rights, a court will likely not view the processes of donating sperm and giving birth to a baby as comparable. Finally, when a lesbian couple with a child dissolves their relationship, the non-biological mother has limited legal protections. TGIVF guarantees both mothers the right to visitation and/or custody upon the dissolution of the relationship because both are the biological and genetic parents to the child.The article recommends that the law recognize TGIVF created families of two legal parents -- the two mothers -- and the children. Three-parent TGIVF created families should also be recognized and legally protected if the two genetic mothers intend to create such a family and the sperm donor agrees and intends such a family. The article concludes by insisting that TGIVF not be viewed as the only method by which lesbians and lesbian couples can form legally recognized families. TGIVF should not limit the options by which lesbians couples can form families, but instead is a stepping-stone into the future of legally recognized, non-traditional families.

Modes of risk explanation in telephone consultations between nurses and parents for a genetic condition

Risk explanations are a crucial part of clinical encounters that concern clients’ genetic risk status. The ways in which risk explanations are delivered may impact on clients’ decision-making and outcomes of these clinical encounters. In this article, we examine risk explanations in telephone consultations in Hong Kong between genetic nurses and parents whose infants have been diagnosed with a mild hereditary disorder, G6PD deficiency, commonly known as favism. Using discourse analytic methods, we focus on 50 audio-recorded telephone consultations. First, we show the distribution of different types of risk explanation in terms of their volume and sequential positioning in the study corpus. The two predominant explanation types – physiological explanations and hereditary explanations – are then discussed in relation to their respective functions in these telephone consultations, namely serving as warrants for advice-giving and providing reassurance. We then examine how the genetic nurses interactionally orient themselves to the parents’ existing knowledge regarding G6PD deficiency while delivering these risk explanations. The differences in explanation trajectories are linked to the presence or absence of prior knowledge of the condition on the part of the parents; and these differences are displayed at the interactional rather than at the substantive level, that is parents with prior knowledge of the condition occupy a different participant status in eliciting and responding to the risk explanations.

The ethics of creating children with three genetic parents

This article on mitochondrial replacement technology briefly explains and defends the legitimacy of such terms as ‘three-parent embryos’, ‘three-parent babies’ and ‘three-person IVF’. Next, it reviews select ethical objections to mitochondrial replacement technology that fall into four, sometimes overlapping, categories: (i) harms to egg providers; (ii) harms to potential offspring and future generations; (iii) harms to specific interest groups; and (iv) harms to society. Taken together, these ethical objections are cause for serious concern and yet the development and future use of mitochondrial replacement technology is likely inevitable.

Experience dependence of neural responses to different classes of male songs in the primary auditory forebrain of female songbirds

There is both extensive species-specificity and critical experience-dependence in the recognition of own species songs in many songbird species. For example, female zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata raised by their parents show behavioral preferences for the songs of the father over unfamiliar conspecific males and for unfamiliar songs of conspecifics over heterospecifics. Behavioral discrimination between different species’ songs is also displayed by females raised without exposure to any male songs but it is diminished in females raised by heterospecific foster parents. We tested whether neural responses in the female auditory forebrain paralleled each of these known behavioral patterns in song-class discrimination. We analyzed spike rates, above background levels, recorded from single units in the L2a subregion of the field L complex of female zebra finches. In subjects raised by genetic parents, spike rates were similar to songs of fathers and unfamiliar male zebra finches, and higher to unfamiliar conspecific over unfamiliar heterospecific songs. In females raised in isolation from male songs, we also found higher spike rates to unfamiliar conspecific over heterospecific songs. In females raised by heterospecific foster parents, spike rates were similar in response to songs of the foster father and unfamiliar males of the foster species, similar between unfamiliar songs of conspecifics and the heterospecific foster species, and higher to unfamiliar songs of the foster species over a third finch species. Thus, in parallel to the experience-dependence of females’ behaviors in response to different male song classes, differences in social experiences can also alter neural response patterns to male song classes in the auditory forebrain of female zebra finches.

Nonrandom brood mixing suggests adoption in a colonial cichlid

Parental care of unrelated offspring is widespread but not well understood. We used 11 polymorphic microsatellite loci to investigate the relatedness of fry and parentally caring adults in a 118-nest colony of the socially and genetically monogamous cichlid fish Neolamprologus caudopunctatus in Lake Tanganyika. There was a high proportion of brood mixing, with 59% of 32 broods containing fry unrelated to both parents, and 18% of all 291 sampled fry being unrelated to the breeding pair. There was no evidence of kin selection for adoption because the genetic and foster parents were not more related than expected by chance. Parentage was assigned to 12 adopted fry from 10 broods. Distances traversed by fry varied markedly, from less than one to over 40 meters. The larger distances suggest that at least some brood mixing was instigated by parents transporting portions of their broods in their mouths, as occurs in some cichlids. Further evidence of non-random brood mixing was that foreign fry did not differ in size from their foster siblings within broods, even though they were significantly larger than fry produced by the tending pairs within the colony. These findings suggest that at least some foreign fry had dispersed non-randomly and were adopted by their foster parents. Enlarged broods are known to provide reduced per capita predation, making it potentially adaptive for breeders to adopt unrelated offspring.

In Defense of Prenatal Genetic Interventions

Jürgen Habermas has argued against prenatal genetic interventions used to influence traits on the grounds that only biogenetic contingency in the conception of children preserves the conditions that make the presumption of moral equality possible. This argument fails for a number of reasons. The contingency that Habermas points to as the condition of moral equality is an artifact of evolutionary contingency and not inviolable in itself. Moreover, as a precedent for genetic interventions, parents and society already affect children's traits, which is to say there is moral precedent for influencing the traits of descendants. A veil-of-ignorance methodology can also be used to justify prenatal interventions through its method of advance consent and its preservation of the contingency of human identities in a moral sense. In any case, the selection of children's traits does not undermine the prospects of authoring a life since their future remains just as contingent morally as if no trait had been selected. Ironically, the prospect of preserving human beings as they are--to counteract genetic drift--might even require interventions to preserve the ability to author a life in a moral sense. In light of these analyses, Habermas' concerns about prenatal genetic interventions cannot succeed as objections to their practice as a matter of principle; the merits of these interventions must be evaluated individually.