Taoyuan pig is a native Taiwan breed. According to the historical record, the breed was first introduced to Taiwan from Guangdong province, Southern China, around 1877. The breed played an important role in Taiwan’s early swine industry. It was classified as an indigenous breed in 1986. After 1987, a conserved population of Taoyuan pig was collected and reared in isolation. In this study, mitochondrial DNA sequences and 18 microsatellite markers were used to investigate maternal lineage and genetic diversity within the Taoyuan pig population. Population differentiation among Taoyuan, Asian type, and European type pig breeds was also evaluated using differentiation indices. Only one D-loop haplotype of the Taoyuan pig was found. It clustered with Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China Type pig breeds. Based on the polymorphism of microsatellite markers, a positive fixation index value (FIS) indicates that the conserved Taoyuan population suffers from inbreeding. In addition, high FST values (>0.2105) were obtained, revealing high differentiation among these breeds. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling showed a clear geometric structure among 7 breeds. Together these results indicate that maternally Taoyuan pig originated in the Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China; however, since being introduced to Taiwan differentiation has occurred. In addition, Taoyuan pig has lost genetic diversity in both its mitochondrial and nuclear genomes.
Abstract. We performed the first genome-wide expression analysis to compare the differences in gene expression in the female sperm reservoir of the duck reproductive tract between two groups with long and short fertile periods to identify factors that may be associated with the fertile period using an oligonucleotide microarray. RNA was extracted from the uterovaginal junction (UV junction) of the two groups. Affymetrix chips containing comprehensive coverage of 32773 transcripts were hybridized with biotin-labeled cRNA, and three biological repeats were performed. We identified 27 transcripts as being differentially regulated. Interestingly, by mapping the differentially expressed transcripts to annotated pathways, we found that Neuropeptide Y (NPY), the RNA expression of which was increased by 2.96-fold in the short-fertile-period group as compared with the long-fertile-period group in our experiment, has been shown to reduce blood flow and substance supply to local tissues. Enah/Vasp-like (EVL), the RNA expression of which was significantly increased by 1.77-fold in the short-fertile-period group as compared with the long-period group, has been demonstrated to be important in activated T-cells. In contrast, trafficking kinesin-binding protein 1 (TRAK1), the expression of which was increased by 2.33-fold in the long-period group as compared with its counterparts, has been suggested to inhibit precocious activation of sperm and prolong sperm life in the female sperm reservoir. The results of real-time PCR confirmed the data obtained by microarray analysis. Our study demonstrated that combining global gene expression investigation with annotated pathway resources contributes to the understanding of sperm life when sustained in the UV junction.Key words: Differentially expressed transcripts, Duck, Fertile period, Uterovaginal junction (J. Reprod. Dev. 57: [731][732][733][734][735][736] 2011) A fter the entry of sperm into a female genital tract before ovulation, sperm accumulate to a certain amount and are stored in the female sperm reservoir [1], which is a widespread phenomenon among numerous avian, reptilian and mammalian species [2][3][4]. The sperm reservoir then releases sperm gradually for successful fertilization after a single insemination, the period of which varies from hours to weeks in different species [2,[4][5][6]. This period is defined as the fertile period. A long fertile period means prolonged sperm survival and leads to a high fertilization rate [7].The process of sperm migration in the female genital tract is more than simply transportation from the position of insemination to the position of fertilization. Rather, it is a complex continuum: entry into the lower genital tract, defense against the tract environment and immunological response, retention in the storage reservoir, activation, taxiing of activated sperm towards oocytes [8], and phagocytosis of nonfertilizing sperm. During sperm storage in the reservoir of the female reproductive tract, there is a close interaction between sperm...
This article proposes the use of strain energy density (SED) for the prediction of fracturing in silicon steel slabs undergoing reheating in a furnace. Reheating is commonly used to soften steel before hot rolling into ultra-thin silicon steel sheets referred to as electromagnetic steel. High heating rates are required to reduce the time spent in the reheating furnace to increase the e ciency of producing ultra-thin electromagnetic steel sheets and decrease fuel consumption. However, an excessive increase in heating rates may induce fracturing due to the comparatively brittle nature of the silicon used in electromagnetic steel slabs to enhance the electromagnetic properties. In this study, the authors used nite element numerical calculation to elucidate the fracture mechanism of electromagnetic steel slabs undergoing heating. The authors then used SED as a criterion by which to optimize the heating rates without inducing fracturing in electromagnetic steel. The proposed model could be used as a guide to shorten the time required for heating various types of steel in reheating furnaces. ARTICLE HISTORY
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