The members of the Aegilops genus serve as a vast pool of allele discovery for wheat improvement in abiotic and biotic stress responses. Aegilops mutica Boiss (Amblyopyrym muticum (Boiss) Eig) is an unexplored candidate with significant potential. Even though it has been used in cytogenetics applications within the last century, natural population diversity and allele discovery have been neglected. As an endemic species for Anatolia and the lower Caucasian region, it has an unexplored population structure. Here, seventy-five genotypes from five different newly collected populations from central Anatolia were evaluated with 29 polymorphic SSR loci. Significant diversity within (83%) and between (17%) the populations was obtained. Three of the populations were clearly separated, while two had some level of the mixture. Relatively easy cross-species hybridization and introgressions make Ae. mutica a good candidate for novel allele discovery and pre-breeding. Here, for the first time, representative natural populations of Ae. mutica were compared and population structures were revealed with SSR markers which may clear the misty vision that geneticists might have regarding Ae. mutica. This could be exploited in genetic resource conservation and breeding programs and maybe a point for further studies.

In breeding programmes, the genetic selection process is based on the prediction of animal breeding values, and its results may vary according to the employed selection method. The current study developed an economic selection index for animals of the Angus breed; performed cluster analyses using the breeding values in order to evaluate the genetic profile of the animals candidates to selection, and compared the obtained results between the economic selection index and the cluster analyses. The evaluated traits included weaning weight, 18-month weight, scrotal circumference, fat thickness and ribeye area. Economic values were obtained using bioeconomic modelling, simulating a complete cycle production system of beef cattle breeds in Brazil, and the selection objective were the weaning rate and slaughter weight. The chosen selection index was composed of all of the traits used as selection criteria for the simulated production system. During the cluster analyses, the population was divided into two to four groups, in which the groupings containing potential animals were assessed. The animals of the grouping which was used for comparison with the selection index were identified, and most of the bulls that were included in the index were among the best in the analysed group. These results suggest that the cluster analyses can be used as a tool for the selection of animals to be used as parents for future generations.

In a first study from India, a diverse collection of 140 environmental and clinical non-O157 Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli strains from a large geographical area in north India was typed by multi-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA). The distribution of major virulence genes stx1, stx2 and eae was found to be 78%, 70% and 10%, respectively; 15 isolates were enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (stx1 +/stx2 + and eae +). By MLVA analysis, 44 different alleles were obtained. Dendrogram analysis revealed 104 different genotypes and 19 MLVA-type complexes divided into two main lineages, i.e. mutton and animal stool. Human isolates presented a statistically significant greater odds ratio for clustering with mutton samples compared to animal stool isolates. Five human isolates clustered with animal stool strains suggesting that some of the human infections may be from cattle, perhaps through milk, contact or the environment. Further epidemiological studies are required to explore these sources in context with occurrence of human cases.

Sri Lanka has a valuable repository of germplasm collection due to the availability of a large number of different traditional and improved rice varieties. Molecular techniques can increase the effectiveness of traditional technologies in assessing genetic diversity. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) was used to evaluate the genetic diversity among rice varieties available in the germplasm collection of Plant Genetic Resources Centre, Sri Lanka. AFLP analysis of rice varieties using ten different primer combinations yielded a total of 772 polymorphic bands (98.4%). Genetic similarities were estimated using Jaccard's (J) similarity coefficient. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA)-based dendrogram was constructed. Genetic similarities varied from 0.073 to 0.565. Cluster analysis by genetic similarity divided the accessions into four main groups. The Cophenetic correlation with r = 0.781 indicated high confidence of AFLP data to group the varieties in UPGMA clusters. Principal component analysis further confirmed the patterns obtained by the cluster analysis. The results revealed very high genetic diversity at molecular level among the Sri Lankan rice varieties used in this study.

Morphometric studies of five allopatric parasitoid populations (genus Psyttalia Walker) from coffee plantations in Cameroon (Nkolbisson), Ghana (Tafo) and Kenya (Rurima, Ruiru and Shimba Hills) and one non-coffee population (from Muhaka, Kenya) were compared with individuals of Psyttalia concolor (Szépligeti), a species released in several biological control programmes in the Mediterranean Region since the 20th Century. Analyses of wing vein measurements showed the second submarginal cell of the fore wing and its adjoining veins had the heaviest principal component weights and served as the main contributing variables in the diagnostic differentiation of the populations. Two populations (Rurima and Ruiru) were found to be the closest to each other and with the strongest phenetic affinity toward P. concolor (and forming one cluster). Populations from Shimba Hills (of unknown identity), Nkolbisson (P. perproximus (Silvestri)) and Tafo formed a second cluster and were separated from P. concolor. Comparison using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) also showed the Shimba, Nkolbisson and Tafo populations forming a cluster in a dendrogram generated from their genetic distances, with the Shimba and Tafo populations placed as the most closely related species. Based on consistent morphological similarities, morphometric and ecological data coupled with the genetic evidence from AFLP data, the Shimba population is suggested as belonging to the P. perproximus group and, thus, represents a new occurrence record in Kenya. Our results also support earlier conclusion from cross mating data that populations from Rurima and Ruiru belong to the Psyttalia concolor species-group.

A partir del estudio cualitativo y cuantitativo de 46 caracteres morfológicos, obtenidos a partir de recopilaciones bibliográficas, se analizan las relaciones existentes entre 17 poblaciones equinas de la Península Ibérica (14 razas españolas y 3 portuguesas).

Los resultados obtenidos permiten clasificar a las diferentes razas en sus correspondientes troncos ancestrales: Equus ferus gmelini, Equus ferus przewalski y Equus ferus solutreensis, integrándose los representantes de los dos primeros grupos en el llamado Tronco Tarpánico.

El promedio de distancia morfológica entre razas, medida como MCD (Mean Character Difference, o promedio de diferencias entre caracteres), tomó un valor de 0,51± 0,11. El análisis cuantitativo de los datos indica que el grupo que forman los poneys ibéricos es morfológicamente muy semejante, a diferencia de lo que ocurre con los grupos de los caballos de silla y los de tiro.

Se analizan las relaciones y se discuten las causas de la variabilidad morfológica entre grupos.