Red Coat Research Articles

Five genetic variants explain over 70% of hair coat pheomelanin intensity variation in purebred and mixed breed domestic dogs.

In mammals, the pigment molecule pheomelanin confers red and yellow color to hair, and the intensity of this coloration is caused by variation in the amount of pheomelanin. Domestic dogs exhibit a wide range of pheomelanin intensity, ranging from the white coat of the Samoyed to the deep red coat of the Irish Setter. While several genetic variants have been associated with specific coat intensity phenotypes in certain dog breeds, they do not explain the majority of phenotypic variation across breeds. In order to gain further insight into the extent of multigenicity and epistatic interactions underlying coat pheomelanin intensity in dogs, we leveraged a large dataset obtained via a direct-to-consumer canine genetic testing service. This consisted of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotype data and owner-provided photos for 3,057 pheomelanic mixed breed and purebred dogs from 63 breeds and varieties spanning the full range of canine coat pheomelanin intensity. We first performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 2,149 of these dogs to search for additional genetic variants that underlie intensity variation. GWAS identified five loci significantly associated with intensity, of which two (CFA15 29.8 Mb and CFA20 55.8 Mb) replicate previous findings and three (CFA2 74.7 Mb, CFA18 12.9 Mb, CFA21 10.9 Mb) have not previously been reported. In order to assess the combined predictive power of these loci across dog breeds, we used our GWAS data set to fit a linear model, which explained over 70% of variation in coat pheomelanin intensity in an independent validation dataset of 908 dogs. These results introduce three novel pheomelanin intensity loci, and further demonstrate the multigenic nature of coat pheomelanin intensity determination in domestic dogs.

Physiological, developmental and growth responses to desiccation induced stress in four seed coat colour varieties of Vigna unguiculata (L. Walp).

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) is a widely grown leguminous crop in Ghana. This study was conducted using four varieties of cowpea based on the colour of the seed coat namely; red, brown, black and cream cowpea varieties, and were subjected to three different watering regimes, namely: Normal, moderate and severe water stress regimes. These different watering regimes were used as potential screening criteria to determine their drought tolerance ability. We monitored changes in physiological, morphological and yield traits due to the effects of four seed coat colour varieties and imposed water regimes. The effects of seed coat colour on relative water content (RWC) was significant (F = 13.15; p ≤ 0.05). Red variety recorded the highest RWC (60.14%) with the lowest RWC (50.71%) in the Black seed colour, all under severe water stress. The Red and Cream seed coats had a soil moisture content (SMC) of 62.61 and 48.70% respectively when the severe water stress treatment was considered. There was a decreasing trend in chlorophyll content for all four cowpea varieties. The Brown and Red varieties recorded the highest chlorophyll contents under moderate and severe water stress respectively. Proline concentrations were high with increasing drought severity. The Red cowpea variety recorded the maximum concentration of free proline (5.7 µg/g) under severe water stress. Mean seed weight in Red seed coat, subjected to severe water stress, was 0.48 g. Results in this experiment revealed that the Red seed coat colour appeared to be tolerant to severe water stress compared to Cream, Black and Brown seed coats. Key words: Cowpea, seed coat colour, water stress, relative water content, soil moisture content.

The role of TaMYB10-A1 of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in determining grain coat colour and dormancy phenotype

Grain dormancy is an important component of resistance to preharvest sprouting in wheat. Historically, red grain coat colour has been associated with this trait despite clear evidence of wide variation in dormancy amongst both red and white wheat varieties. Whereas the genes controlling red grain coat colour have been identified, the mechanism involved in their effect on dormancy has not been determined. This investigation confirmed that the R gene that controls colour in a single gene (Tamyb10-A1b) red wheat, AUS1490 is a Tamyb10 transcription factor. Mutation of Tamyb10-A1 resulted in a white grain coat as well as a reduction in dormancy that was manifest as an early release from dormancy during grain ripening. Red coat colour per se appeared to increase the time to dormancy release and had a cumulative effect in combination with other dormancy loci that are not linked to grain colour. In quantitative terms, the effect of the seed coat colour appeared to be equivalent to that of the dormancy loci present in AUS1490 that are not linked to grain colour. Dormancy release occurred earlier in isolated embryos compared with intact caryopses but was similar in both the mutants and the parental line. This suggests that a component of dormancy that is not associated with the red coat colour is expressed in the embryo and that it interacts with factors in the grain coat to generate the phenotype of the intact caryopsis.

Evaluation of Leaf Rust Resistance in the Spanish Core Collection of Tetraploid Wheat Landraces and Association with Ecogeographical Variables

Spain has a great landrace diversity of the subspecies of the tetraploid species Triticum turgidum L., namely, durum (or durum wheat), turgidum (or rivet wheat) and dicoccon (or domesticated emmer wheat). These wheats have to confront several foliar diseases such as the leaf rust. In this work, a core collection of 94 landraces of tetraploid wheats were inoculated with three leaf rust isolates. Besides, a larger collection (of 192 accessions) was evaluated in the field. Although the majority of landraces were susceptible, approximately 20% were resistant, especially domesticated emmer wheat landraces. Several variables, such as late heading and red coat seeds were associated to resistant accessions. Regarding ecogeographic variables, a higher rainfall from October to February and more uniform temperature were found in the area of origin of resistant landraces. Based on these results, several resistant landraces were identified that potentially may be used in durum wheat breeding programs. In addition, a predictive model was elaborated to develop smaller subsets for future screening with a higher hit rate for rust resistance.

Una Watters: Everywoman Caught in the Rain

Una Watters:Everywoman Caught in the Rain Mary Morrissy (bio) girl going by trinity in the rain started it all. Painted in 1959, it shows a woman in profile dressed in a red coat, gripping an umbrella, passing in front of the stone façade of Trinity College Dublin. In the top left-hand corner of the painting the plinth of the statue of the eighteenth-century poet, playwright, and dramatist Oliver Goldsmith is just visible, but the rain is the focus of the work. Jagged, almost two-dimensional slashes with geometrical shadows vividly create the impression of a torrential downpour that the girl of the title has to battle against, giving the modest subject matter, a woman walking in the rain, a bold, modernist appeal. You can sense the physicality of the driving rain, sharp as razor blades, flinty and unforgiving like the austere frontage of Trinity. Apart from the young woman's bright red coat and umbrella, the only other departure from the somber palette is a band of luscious kelly green that bisects the canvas two-thirds of the way down. This band serves to emphasize the driving diagonals of the rain, as if the elements are literally bearing down and oppressing the figure of the woman. And yet she's pressing on, a stoic expression on her stylized face. She is Everywoman caught in the rain. But who is the artist? She is Dublin painter Una Watters, someone you've probably never heard of. How do some artists secure a place in the pantheon while others fade after death, their paintings lost from public view? Is it talent, accident, or luck that secures an artist's fate? In Una Watters's case, she certainly had the talent, but unlucky circumstances worked against her gaining a public reputation. Since 2018, I've been engaged in a campaign to restore—or perhaps to properly establish—the reputation of Una Watters (1918–1965) and to rescue her from what I think is unfair neglect. With the help of Una's family, particularly her niece Sheila Smith, we set out to locate the thirty-seven oil paintings that [End Page 39] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Una Watters, Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain (1959; oil on canvas, 78.74 x 56.42 cm), private collection If the "girl" in Watters's painting references the Danaë myth, then this Danaë is suited and booted and shielding herself against the Irish-style shower—read steely, icy-gray rather than golden—that seems to emanate from Goldsmith. [End Page 40] were shown in a posthumous exhibition of Una's work at the Dublin Painters Gallery in November 1966, the last time her art was on public display. This exhibition was arranged by her widower, the Irish-language novelist and poet Eugene Watters (Eoghan Ó Tuairisc), as a monument to Una's talent and a kind of artistic wake. We're hoping to re-create that exhibition with twenty-seven of Una's recovered oils in Dublin in spring 2022. Our quest has taken us all over the country—from a disused ballroom in Ballinasloe (pace Derek Mahon) to attics and living rooms in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, and beyond. We have not traced all her work—and along the way we've discovered paintings we didn't know existed—but we're hoping that the collation of a body of Una's work in one place for the first time in over fifty years will have a transformative effect on her reputation, alerting art scholars and the public to a singular artistic talent. Let me say from the start that I'm not an art historian by training, so resurrecting Una, as I like to think of it, is a personal crusade inspired solely by a deep admiration of her work rather than any professional expertise. I never met Una; I've come to know her only through her paintings, perhaps the purest relationship one can have with an artist. But I've been in the lucky position of living for the past twenty years with Girl Going by Trinity in the Rain (oil on canvas, 78.74 x...

Genetic diversity of modern strawberry varieties of domestic breeding

The object of research was the pedigrees of strawberry varieties. An analysis of the genetic relationship of 129 varieties of domestic strawberry breeding, 6 parent forms, 2 of which are foreign varieties was carried out. Until the 1930s, strawberry culture in the USSR was based exclusively on Western European varieties: König Albert von Sachsen, Roschinskaya, Victoria, White Pine, Apricose, Konigin Luise, Noble Laxton, Siger, Spate von Leopoldshall, Kent’s Miracle, Sharpliss, Muto, etc. During the transition to the commercial production, these varieties were not insufficiently tolerant, which required the creation of a new assortment for various conditions of cultivation, and served as the beginning of the implementation of domestic strawberry breeding programs. At present, the State register of breeding achievements approved for use in 2020 includes 106 strawberry varieties, of which 82 are of domestic breeding. Existing domestic varieties have different geographical origins. The main Centers for strawberry breeding are: All-Russian Horticultural Institute for Breeding, Agrotechnology and Nursery, I.V. Michurin Federal Research Center, N. I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, North Caucasus Federal Research Center For Horticulture, Viticulture, and Winemaking, etc. Initially, the parent forms for creating a domestic assortment were European and American varieties: Culver, Deutsch Evern, Georg Soltwedel, Konigin Luise, Markee, König Albert von Sachsen Marshall, Macherauchs Marieva, Macherauchs Fruhernte, Muto, Premier, Red Coat, Red Gauntlet, Robinson, Senga Sengana, Sieger, Sparkle, Spate von Leopoldshall, Wander von Kothen. Analysis of pedigrees of 135 varieties from the 23 literature sources allowed to identify the most effective in the formation of domestic assortment genotypes of strawberry: Komsomolska (10 varieties in the first generation; 12 in the second; 14 in the third, 2 in the fourth), Mysovka (12 varieties in the first generation; 20 in the second; 21 – in the third; 2 in the fourth), Obilnaya (7 varieties in the first generation; 22 – the second; 20 for the third; 6 for the fourth), Festivalnaya (21 varieties in the first generation; 19 – in the second; 6 in the third), Culver (20 varieties in the first generation; 16 – in the second, 3 – in the third), Senga Sengana (13 varieties in the first generation; 7 – in the second; 4-in the third). The originator of 37.8% of domestic varieties included in the State register is the Obilnaya variety (Wander von Kothen × Deutsch Evern). On the basis of the Festivalnaya variety obtained with his participation (Obilnaya × Premier), an assortment was created that has not lost its relevance at the present time (26 varieties are included in the State register). The varieties Mysovka (Wander von Kothen × Deutsch Evern) and Zenga Zengana (Markee × Sieger) are included in the pedigree of 13 and 14 modern varieties, respectively. Based on the Komsomolka and Culver varieties, 7 and 9 varieties were created, respectively, which are currently included in the State register. Intraspecific hybridization has not exhausted the possibility of creating a genetically diverse breeding material. Taking into account the fact that domestic varieties often have closely related origin, it is desirable to involve introduced forms and varieties obtained with their participation in the breeding process more widely. The results of using various methods of breeding (inbreeding, saturating crosses) indicate that it is possible to further improve strawberry varieties creating donors of a high level of economically valuable traits. The current level of scientific knowledge and development of biotechnological research allows us to “model” varieties, including in the genotype of strawberry genes and gene blocks of valuable traits from closely related species, reducing the duration of the breeding process.

Books: The Man in the Red Coat: A Rich and Witty Tour of Belle Époque Paris, Via the Life Story of the Pioneering Surgeon Samuel Pozzi.

Julian Barnes Jonathan Cape , 2019 , HB, 280 pp, £20.00 , 978-1787332164 This biographical account of the famous doctor in the life-size picture produced at the time of the Belle Epoque in France (1871–1914), is a tour de force by Julian Barnes. The oil painting in ravishing red hues by John Singer Sargent celebrates a young surgeon who is going places and knows his mind. The scarlet cloak with dangling tassel and delicate doctor’s hands with assured visage was deemed too scandalous to exhibit in France. Perhaps this was due to the fact he was a very successful gynaecologist (and womaniser who is presumed to have slept with some of his celebrity patients) or perhaps because he was from Jewish Protestant Italian parentage. This did not sit well with Catholic aristocratic France. …

Caracterización morfológica y faneróptica de hembras Ovino de Pelo Criollo Colombiano “OPC” Sudán

Objetivo. Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo describir la morfología cualitativa y faneróptica de hembras Ovino de Pelo Criollo Colombiano (OPC) Sudán. Materiales y métodos. Se evaluaron seis características fanerópticas y siete morfológicas cualitativas en 115 hembras Sudán Bayo y Sudán Blanco, de los departamentos Córdoba, Cesar y La Guajira. Los datos obtenidos se analizaron a través del programa estadístico InfoStat® y se estimaron las frecuencias relativas y absolutas para cada uno de los caracteres evaluados. Resultados. Los OPC Sudán Bayo se distinguieron por ser de un color de capa bayo amarillo. Los Sudán Blanco fueron de capa overo castaño, pero predominando siempre el blanco sobre el castaño. Estos ovinos se caracterizaron por poseer mucosas negra-rosadas y en menor proporción habían individuos con mucosas rosadas. Además, presentaron orejas horizontales siempre, perfiles subconvexos en más del 80% de los casos, cuellos generalmente medianos y poco musculados, grupas usualmente inclinadas, ubres parcialmente pigmentadas y también despigmentadas. Asimismo, se caracterizaron por ostentar pezuñas veteadas mayoritariamente, aunque con un alto porcentaje de pezuñas claras en las Sudán Blanco. Conclusiones. Este trabajo ha permitido caracterizar de manera específica a las OPC Sudán desde la morfología y la faneróptica, obteniéndose así información de importancia para delimitar los parámetros de pertenencia a este grupo y para la propuesta de creación de un estándar racial.

Narrative strategy of manifestation in J. Barnes’s “The Man in the Red Coat”

Narrative strategy of manifestation in J. Barnes’s “The Man in the Red Coat”

Comparative selection signature analyses identify genomic footprints in Reggiana cattle, the traditional breed of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese production system

Reggiana is an autochthonous cattle breed reared mainly in the province of Reggio Emilia, located in the North of Italy. Reggiana cattle (originally a triple-purpose population largely diffused in the North of Italy) are characterised by a typical solid red coat colour. About 2500 cows of this breed are currently registered to its herd book. Reggiana is now considered a dual-purpose breed even if it is almost completely dedicated to the production of a mono-breed branded Protected Designation of Origin Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, which is the main driver of the sustainable conservation of this local genetic resource. In this study, we provided the first overview of genomic footprints that characterise Reggiana and define the diversity of this local cattle breed. A total of 168 Reggiana sires (all bulls born over 35 years for which semen was available) and other 3321 sires from 3 cosmopolitan breeds (Brown, Holstein and Simmental) were genotyped with the Illumina BovineSNP50 panel. ADMIXTURE analysis suggested that Reggiana breed might have been influenced, at least in part, by the other three breeds included in this study. Selection signatures in the Reggiana genome were identified using three statistical approaches based on allele frequency differences among populations or on properties of haplotypes segregating in the populations (fixation index (FST); integrated haplotype score; cross-population extended haplotype homozygosity). We identified several regions under peculiar selection in the Reggiana breed, particularly on bovine chromosome (BTA) 6 in the KIT gene region, that is known to be involved in coat colour pattern distribution, and within the region of the LAP3, NCAPG and LCORL genes, that are associated with stature, conformation and carcass traits. Another already known region that includes the PLAG1 gene (BTA14), associated with conformation traits, showed a selection signature in the Reggiana cattle. On BTA18, a signal of selection included the MC1R gene that causes the red coat colour in cattle. Other selection sweeps were in regions, with high density of quantitative trait loci for milk production traits (on BTA20) and in several other large regions that might have contributed to shape and define the Reggiana genome (on BTA17 and BTA29). All these results, overall, indicate that the Reggiana genome might still contain several signs of its multipurpose and non-specialised utilisation, as already described for other local cattle populations, in addition to footprints derived by its ancestral origin and by its adaptation to the specialised Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese production system.

Studying the link between physiological performance of Crotalaria ochroleuca and the distribution of Ca, P, K and S in seeds with X-ray fluorescence.

This study describes the use of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy in Crotalaria ochroleuca seed technology. This work evaluated X-ray fluorescence techniques to estimate the physiological performance of different C. ochroleuca seed coat colours based on the concentration and distribution of Ca, P, K, and S in seed structures. The treatments consisted of seeds separated by coat colours (yellow, green, and red) and a control treatment (colour mix according to their natural occurrence in commercial lots), and was carried out in a completely randomized design, with four replications. The physiological performance was evaluated by analyzing the water content, germination, first germination count, germination speed index, electrical conductivity, seedling emergence, and seedling length and dry mass. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy techniques were carried out with quantitative analyses (Ca, P, K, and S concentration in the seed coat and the whole seed) and qualitative analyses (macronutrient mapping). The EDXRF and μ-XRF techniques are efficient and promising to differentiate the physiological performance of C. ochroleuca seeds, based on the concentration and distribution of Ca, P, K, and S in different structures. Ca is predominant in the seed coat, and K, S, and P are found throughout the embryonic axis. Seeds of yellow and green coats have higher nutrients concentration and distribution in the embryonic axis, revealing high germinative capacity and physiological performance. Seeds of red coat have higher nutrients concentration in the seed coat and lower assimilation, showing less vigour, which interferes directly in the quality of commercial lots.

80 Biallelic CRISPR-Cas9 editing of gene associated with coat colour in microinjected bovine zygotes reaching the blastocyst stage

Successful genome editing of blastocysts using zygote microinjection with transcription activator-like effector nucleases has already been accomplished in cattle as well as a limited number of CRISPR-Cas9 microinjections of zygotes, mostly using RNA. Recent editing of the Pou5f1 gene in bovine blastocysts using CRISPR-Cas9, clarifying its role in embryo development, supports the viability of this technology to produce genome edited cattle founders. To further this aim, we hypothesise that editing of the coatomer subunit α (COPA) gene, a protein carrier associated with the dominant red coat colour phenotype in Holstein cattle, is feasible through zygote microinjection. Here, we report successful gene editing of COPA in cattle zygotes reaching the blastocyst stage, a necessary step in creating genome edited founder animals. A single guide RNA was designed to target the sixth exon of COPA. Presumptive zygotes derived from slaughterhouse oocytes by in vitro maturation and fertilization were microinjected either with the PX458 plasmid (Addgene #48138; n=585, 25ng µL−1) or with a ribonucleoprotein effector complex (n=705, 20, 50, 100, and 200ng µL−1) targeting the sixth exon of COPA. Plasmid injected zygotes were selected for green fluorescent protein (GFP) fluorescence at Day 8, whereas protein injected zygotes were selected within 24h post-injection based on ATTO-550 fluorescence. To assess gene editing rates, single Day 8 blastocysts were PCR amplified and screened using the T7 endonuclease assay. Positive structures were Sanger sequenced using bacterial cloning. For plasmid injected groups, the Day 8 blastocyst rate averaged 30.3% (control 18.1%). The fluorescence rate at Day 8 was 6.3%, with a GFP positive blastocyst rate of 1.6%, totaling 7 blastocysts. The T7 assay revealed editing in GFP negative blastocysts and morulae as well, indicating that GFP is not a precise selection tool for successful editing. In protein injection groups, the highest concentration yielded the lowest survival rates (200ng µL−1, 50.0%, n=126), whereas the lowest concentration had the highest survival rate (20ng µL−1, 79.5%, n=314). The Day 8 blastocyst rate reached an average of 25% across groups. However, no edited blastocysts were observed in the higher concentration groups (100,200ng µL−1). The highest number of edited embryos was found in the lowest concentration injected (20ng µL−1, 4/56). Edited embryos showed multiple editing events neighbouring the guide RNA target site ranging from a 12-bp insertion to a 9-bp deletion, as well as unedited sequences. Additionally, one embryo showed a biallelic 15-bp deletion of COPA (10 clones). One possible reason for the presence of only mosaic editing and this in-frame deletion could be that a working copy of COPA is needed for proper blastocyst formation and that a knockout could be lethal. Additional validation and optimization is needed to elucidate the functional role of COPA during early development and its modulation when creating founder animals.

Waking From the Dream: The Arcades Project, Copia , and the American Consumer

Waking From the DreamThe Arcades Project, Copia, and the American Consumer Laura Morowitz (bio) When the project really started getting legs I started thinking about this idea in reference to the turn of the century, from the nineteenth to the twentieth, how there were some really interesting parallels, especially in visual culture and art, I was specifically thinking about the Post-Impressionists and Manet and Gustave Caillebotte, the great painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. It's kind of weird how in a sense that was almost like what we would call street photography, looking at culture and trying to see this psychological undertone and cultural underpinnings, similar, except the only difference was instead of walking down the Parisian boulevards or sitting at the train station it was now Walmart. —Brian Ulrich, Art Uncovered, November 2011 For while the relation of the present to the past is a purely temporal, continuous one, the relation of what-has-been to the now is dialectic: is not progression but image, suddenly emergent. — Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project (N2, A3) In Brian Ulrich's photograph Cleveland, Ohio, 2003 (fig. 1), from his series Copia (2001–2011), a little girl in a red coat turns her back on the overstuffed shelves and perfect symmetry of a Disney Store display, bewildered by the scene. Behind her, in faded purple, rises Cinderella's castle, the site of twenty-first-century childhood fantasy. With her bright jacket and soft face, she has begun to resemble the cuddly toys behind her.1 While the stuffed tigers seem to laugh at a joke in which we may be the punch line, Eeyore casts a decidedly concerned glance in the little girl's direction, as if she might be on the brink of danger. [End Page 1] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Brian Ulrich, Cleveland, Ohio, 2003, from Copia: Retail, color photograph. Collection: Ulrich. The image captures perfectly both the lure of consumer culture and its threat to engulf us in fantasy. No corporation has been more successful than Disney in trafficking in our collective dreams. Centuries of humanity's legacy—the European fairy tale—are largely accessed now through the entertainment industry and its commodities. Its products hold power over us in part because they reach back to our deepest instincts and collective unconscious; benevolent kingdoms and harmonious villages are accessible now not through oral transmission but through computer games and packaged videos. In addition to its exploration of the bright gleam and highly ordered spaces of the box stores and malls of the United States, Copia equally images the worn and discarded products that overflow the shelves of thrift and secondhand stores and the shuttered malls that dot the American landscape since the economic downturn of 2008 (fig. 2). The perfect symmetry and vivid colors that characterize the earlier images become chaotic and faded, while the structures themselves remain only as ghosts of themselves. [End Page 2] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Brian Ulrich, Pep Boys 3, 2009, from Copia: Dark Stores, color photograph. Collection: Ulrich. The photographic oeuvre of Brian Ulrich has been widely and ingeniously analyzed; his record of modern consumer culture has been mined for its poetic resonance and the way it lays bare the inner workings of contemporary American life.2 Despite their powerful evocation of twenty-first-century consumption, the photographs that constitute Copia are haunted by ideas and images first articulated by the German philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin, in his magisterial—and never finished—The Arcades Project of the 1930s. It's a paradox: Benjamin's The Arcades Project, written by a twentieth-century German to elucidate nineteenth-century Paris, being used here to illuminate twenty-first-century America. Benjamin himself might have savored such a set of historical displacements. In the following pages, I argue that a close reading of Benjamin's texts unlocks some of the mythic, phantasmagoric content of Ulrich's images and that the photographs, in their specificity, give form to Benjamin's doomed project and to his concept of the dialectical image. In this essay, I use the language and imagery of The Arcades Project to...

Physical and morphometric characterization of young Red Kandhari cattle in their breeding tract

A study was conducted in the breeding tract of Red Kandhari cattle in Marathwada region comprising Latur, Parbhani and Nanded district to document the morphometric characteristic to know the present status of the breed. Total 535young Red Kandhari cattle were selected morphometric measurements were recorded by using measuring tape while physical characteristic were recorded visually.The overall LSQ means at 0-3 months of Red Kandhari for chest girth, abdominal girth, body length, height at wither, height at elbow, height at hip bone, height at pin bone, length of ear, width of ear, length of face, width of fore head, length of neck, width between hook bone, width between pin bone, tail length and body weight were 70.56 ± 0.66, 72.27 ± 0.78, 64.06 ± 0.69, 69.00 ± 0.63, 42.93 ± 0.37, 69.44 ± 0.66, 65.13 ± 0.63, 13.66 ± 0.21, 7.54 ± 0.07, 23.21 ± 0.32, 11.25 ± 0.18, 25.02 ± 0.26 , 15.71 ± 0.16 , 9.08 ± 0.15, 41.66 ± 0.44 cm and 30.06 ± 0.83 kg and at 4-12 months of age were 116.21 ± 0.73, 122.86 ± 0.77, 99.89 ± 0.51, 102.32 ± 0.43, 60.49 ± 0.59, 103.71 ± 0.44, 97.51 ± 0.38, 18.38 ± 0.16, 10.28 ± 0.24, 35.55 ± 0.24, 18.11 ± 0.08, 38.50 ± 0.13, 26.43 ± 0.22, 14.83 ± 0.18, 60.90 ± 0.39 cm and 127.93 ± 2.42 kg, respectively. Majority of the Red Kandhari cattle have Brick Red coat color followed by Dark Red. The sex showed highly significant (P Lass Than 0.01) to significant (p Lass Than 0.05) effect on most of the traits for both the age group whereas district doesn’t play any major role on these traits.The significant to highly significant effect of sex on some of body measurements and non-significant effect of district in all traits may lead to the concrete conclusion that these factors play a major role in exhibiting the specific body measurements only in Red Kandhari cattle at 4-12 and 0-3 months of age.

Effect of coat colour on morphological characteristics of Red Sokoto, Sahel and West African Dwarf goats

The need to classify animals into breeds has necessitated the study of coat colour and its overall impact on livestock productivity. There exists paucity of information on the impact of coat colour on morphometrics of goats in Nigeria and this study was designed to fill that knowledge gap. Color morphological character was used to determine the relationship among Red Sokoto, Sahel and West Africa Dwarf at different ages (Less than one year, one to two years and above two years). 300 each of Red Sokoto, Sahel and WAD goats, with 150 males and females per breed and 100 across ages (<1year old, 1-2 years old and 2-3 years old) from Sokoto, Borno and Ogun state were sampled and were sorted into colour groups within breeds and different age groups and the effect of this on body measurements and body weight were evaluated. It was generally observed that coat colour influence varied with sexes and ages and moderately influenced many body mensuration traits with no definite pattern between breeds, ages and sex. Brown goats with white spots weighed heavier (body weight), grew taller (height at wither and stature) and had greater depth (D) and girth (HG); followed by white and brown, brown (B) and dark red (DR) coat coloured goats. The black with black spotted pigments had the least figures for production parameters on the average. It was concluded that although, coat colour appeared as a weak factor influencing body growth, it nevertheless, is a moderate factor that influences body morphometry.

English

The aim of this study was to characterize the phenotype of the indigenous sheep population in central zone of Tigray. A total of 450 mature sheep were sampled randomly for collect qualitative data. Based on dentition adult sheep were classified into four age categories (from one pair of permanent incisor to four pair of permanent incisor). Coat colour, tail type, ear orientation and presence of wattle were significant (p<0.05) between districts studied. Among the three districts only within Tanqua-Abergelle district attributes of coat colour type, tail form, horn and wattle were found to be significant (p<0.05). Majority of the sheep population in Tanqua-Abergelle district had a dark red coat colour type (50.2%), while in Kola-Tembien and Adwa districts sheep were dominated by gray coat colour type (30.1 and 40.8%) respectively. Most of the sampled sheep population across the three districts were short fat tailed followed by short thin and rumped fat tail type. Multiple correspondence analysis indicated that the sampled sheep population in the study districts were clustered into two groups based on their unique characteristics; Kola-Tembien and Adwa sheep together as one group while Tanqua-Abergelle district sheep as the other group, based on their unique characters. Based on the present result on characterization of sheep in the study area one may develop selection criteria and productivity schemes of the local sheep. Key words: Adwa, Kola-Tembien, Tanqua-Abergelle, qualitative traits, suitable selection criteria.

Lionfishes Pterois miles and Pterois volitans in the North-eastern Mediterranean Sea: Distribution, Habitation, Predation and Predators

The lionfish Pterois miles was first recorded in the Iskenderun Bay on 2014 in Turkish Marine waters, and then its distribution was extended to Mersin and Antalya Bays in 2014 in the Mediterranean part of Turkey. The first observation of P. miles in the Aegean Sea was from Fethiye region in July 2015. The extension of P. miles in Turkish marine waters seems to be fast even though it’s slow moving feature. Second species of the lionfish, red lionfish Pterois volitans, was also recorded from Turkish Marine waters on May 2016 by a commercial purse seine at 30 m depth at İskenderun Bay and underwater observation was also recorded on October 2016 at Antakya Bay. Therefore, the number of Pterois species in the Mediterranean Sea has reached to two, P. miles and P. volitans. Based on underwater observations, P. miles and P. volitans are usually observed in rocky and cave habitats and prefer 10-40 meters for feeding that may cause the reduction of populations of vanikoro sweeper (Pempheris spp.), cardinal fish (Apogon spp.) and red coat (Sargocentron rubrum) species. P. miles and P. volitans also show cohabitation and gathering usually with 2-5 individuals. Grouper species such as dusky gruper Ephinephelus marginatus and goldblotch grouper Ephinephelus costae are the main predators of the lionfishes

The Winter’s Tale

Reviewed by: The Winter’s Tale Pascale Aebischer The Winter’s TalePresented by Cheek by Jowl at the Silk Street Theatre, Barbican, London, UK. 04 5– 22, 2017. Directed by Declan Donnellan. Designed by Nick Ormerod. Lighting design by Judith Greenwood. Music and sound design by Paddy Cunneen. With Grace Andrews (Emilia/Time), Joseph Black (Cleomenes), David Carr (Camillo), Tom Cawte (Mamillius), Ryan Donaldson (Autolycus), Guy Hughes (Dion), Orlando James (Leontes), Sam McArdle (Young Shepherd), Eleanor McLoughlin (Perdita), Peter Moreton (Old Shepherd/Antigonus), Natalie Radmall-Quirke (Hermione/Dorcas), Joy Richardson (Paulina/Mopsa), Edward Sayer (Polixenes), and Sam Woolf (Florizel). The following review continues our recurring series of “Second Looks,” in which reviewers who enjoy an especially intimate relationship to a play or company—for example, those who have edited its text, directed a production of it, or have published elsewhere on the company and its productions—revisit productions we have previously reviewed from their own area of expertise or academic interest. Here, Pascale Aebischer, who has written on Cheek by Jowl’s media work, reviews the company’sThe Winter’s Tale, previously reviewedin Shakespeare Bulletin by Justin B. Hopkins. A woman in a red coat sits on a long green bench with her back to the audience. The lights go down. The lights go up. A man sits on a bench facing the audience. As the light intensifies and music builds up into a thunderclap, his handsome face acquires ever deeper shadows until the outlines of the skull beneath his skin make his eyes disappear into their sockets. The opening dumb show of Cheek by Jowl’s The Winter’s Talestaged the ravages of Time—personified as the woman in the red coat—as played out over the features of Orlando James’s Leontes. It presented the play as the tragedy of a mismatch between Leontes’s attractive features and his inner corruption. In its substitution of Leontes’s body for that of female Time, it furthermore brought to the fore how Shakespeare’s play itself maximizes the attention to Leontes’s [End Page 721]anguish, remorse, and eventual redemption by removing alternative focal points from view, killing off Mamillius and making Hermione “die” offstage. In his review of this touring production on its stopover in New York in Shakespeare Bulletin35.2, Justin B. Hopkins takes his lead from the dumb show and focuses attention on the production’s immature, impulsive, psychologically imbalanced and dangerously abusive Leontes. As James performed him, Leontes was a man of muscular action and violent emotion: he wrestled with Polixenes, manipulated his friend’s and Hermione’s bodies into smiling and copulating, slapped his son, sobbed, grovelled, and knelt in a final tentative embrace of his wife and daughter. Hermione, in Hopkins’s account of the production, was passive: silent in the face of Leontes’s accusation, the victim of his vicious physical assault that led to Perdita’s premature birth, and an almost incidental contributor to the pathos of Leontes’s emotions in the final scene. But there is another way of reading the production that complements Hopkins’s account. Donnellan and Ormerod are known for putting troubled familial dynamics and complex female characters center stage and for creating physical tableaux in which emotional relationships are visualized through gesture and spatial configurations, as they did in their productions of Measure for Measure, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, and The Changeling(for accounts of these productions, see Aebischer; Mentz; Menzer). Taking a lead from this, I want to focus on Natalie Radmall-Quirke’s Hermione and consider the story this production tells through her stillness and her body’s placement in relation to the bodies of others. When Hermione first appeared, heavily pregnant yet in court shoes sitting on the bench next to Leontes, the upright elegance and reserve of her bearing indicated a life led permanently in the limelight. The discernible strain in her manner as she asked Polixenes to stay, and her quick glances to Leontes to check how he would respond, suggested an anxiety over pleasing her husband that might indicate a longer history of abuse. When Leontes embarrassed his reluctant guest by pulling him into...

Nutritional components can influence hair coat colouration in white dogs

SummaryHair colouration in animals is controlled primarily by inherited factors, with a complex set of genes and genetic variants determining phenotypic expression. The colours in the hair shaft are created initially by the melanocyte cells within the hair bulb which produce and secrete two types of melanin into the hair cortex, black eumelanin and brown pheomelanin. Together these two pigments are responsible for creating the considerable diversity of colour seen in hair across the animal kingdom. In the absence of melanins the hair remains translucent, appearing white to the eye. Colour, or absence thereof, can only be imparted on a hair during its ‘anagen’ or growing phase. During the telogen (resting) phase the colour of the hair is relatively constant, notwithstanding effects of environmental influences such as UV in sunlight, or staining agents. A further environmental factor is nutrition. The intensity of black in the hair of both cats and dogs is known to be influenced by the dietary intake of certain amino acids such as phenylalanine (Phe) and tyrosine (Tyr). However the role of nutrition in hair pigmentation is generally poorly understood. This trial investigated the impact of diet on the commonly observed red discolouration of white coat in dogs. Two panels of 13 Swiss White Shepherd dogs were fed diets containing different concentrations of Phe + Tyr (test diet containing 3.02 g/Mcal versus control 4.82 g/Mcal) and copper (test diet containing 8.93 ppm versus control 13.28 ppm) for four months. Coat colouration was assessed via spectrophotometry using the CIE Lab colour space system (International Commission on Illumination). Dogs fed the reduced Phe + Tyr and copper showed significantly less red coat pigmentation (a* parameter) by the end of the feeding study (P &lt; 0.02). It was concluded that the level of Phe + Tyr not only affects black but also white coat in dogs. Diet can therefore exert an influence on multiple aspects of coat pigmentation.

Phenotypic Characterization of Indigenous Sheep Types in Bale Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

This study was aimed to generate organized information on physical characteristics and prediction of live weight using linear body measurements of indigenous sheep types in five districts of Bale zone (Agarfa, Dinsh, Goba, Sawena and Dawe Kechan). The study was based on field measurements. Multistage purposive sampling was used for selection of districts. Three kebeles from each districts were sampled using simple random sampling techniques. About 600 matured sheep (540 female and 60 male) sheep were sampled for body measurements and qualitative character based on four age category (1 PPI, 2 PPI, 3 PPI and 4 PPI). Both qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical analysis system. On the identified dimensions, the sheep population in highland district were found within the same region of space and were clustered with long tailed, no toggle, black and red coat color, no wattle, lateral ear form and forward and upright horn orientation while sheep in Sawena and Dawe kechan were characterized as patch coat color pattern with black and white color, polled horn, dropped ear form, fat rumped tail type, concave head profile and absence of toggle and presence of wattle. The highest correlation between chest girth and body weight both for male and female sheep indicate that chest girth is the best variable for predicting live weight than other measurements. The overall mean of body weight, body length, heart girth, wither height, pelvic width, ear length, rump height, rump length, rump width and head length were 26 Kg, 48.75 cm, 71.4 cm, 62.1 cm, 16.32 cm, 11.1 cm, 63.66 cm, 14.04 cm, 16.86 cm and 9.11 cm, respectively. The best predicted body weight (BW) Model for female sheep is -13.53+0.40HG+0.25BL-0.17HL and Model for male sheep (BW) is -13.66+0.41HG+0.39SC+0.27RL-0.11PW. The present phenotypic characterization reveals that, the existence of diversity of sheep genetic resource across different agro-ecologies. Arsi bale sheep breed is distributed in highland districts and black head Somali sheep is distributed in lowlands of bale zone.