The African buffalo, Syncerus caffer, is one of the most abundant and ecologically important species of megafauna in the savannah ecosystem. It is an important prey species, as well as a host for a vast array of nematodes, pathogens and infectious diseases, such as bovine tuberculosis and corridor disease. Large-scale SNP discovery in this species would greatly facilitate further research into the area of host genetics and disease susceptibility, as well as provide a wealth of sequence information for other conservation and genomics studies. We sequenced pools of Cape buffalo DNA from a total of 9 animals, on an ABI SOLiD4 sequencer. The resulting short reads were mapped to the UMD3.1 Bos taurus genome assembly using both BWA and Bowtie software packages. A mean depth of 2.7× coverage over the mapped regions was obtained. Btau4 gene annotation was added to all SNPs identified within gene regions. Bowtie and BWA identified a maximum of 2,222,665 and 276,847 SNPs within the buffalo respectively, depending on analysis method. A panel of 173 SNPs was validated by fluorescent genotyping in 87 individuals. 27 SNPs failed to amplify, and of the remaining 146 SNPs, 43–54% of the Bowtie SNPs and 57–58% of the BWA SNPs were confirmed as polymorphic. dN/dS ratios found no evidence of positive selection, and although there were genes that appeared to be under negative selection, these were more likely to be slowly evolving house-keeping genes.

Chickens are an important resource for smallholder farmers who raise locally adapted, genetically distinct breeds for eggs and meat. The development of efficient reproductive technologies to conserve and regenerate chicken breeds safeguards existing biodiversity and secures poultry genetic resources for climate resilience, biosecurity, and future food production. The majority of the over 1600 breeds of chicken are raised in low and lower to middle income countries under resource-limited, small-scale production systems, which necessitates a low-tech, cost-effective means of conserving diversity is needed. Here, we validate a simple biobanking technique using cryopreserved embryonic chicken gonads. The gonads are quickly isolated, visually sexed, pooled by sex, and cryopreserved. Subsequently, the stored material is thawed and dissociated before injection into sterile host chicken embryos. By using pooled GFP and RFP-labelled donor gonadal cells and Sire Dam Surrogate mating, we demonstrate that chicks deriving entirely from male and female donor germ cells are hatched. This technology will enable ongoing efforts to conserve chicken genetic diversity for both commercial and smallholder farmers, and to preserve existing genetic resources at poultry research facilities.

Chickens are an important resource for smallholder farmers who raise locally adapted, genetically distinct breeds for eggs and meat. The development of efficient reproductive technologies to conserve and regenerate chicken breeds safeguards existing biodiversity and secures poultry genetic resources for climate resilience, biosecurity, and future food production. The majority of the over 1600 breeds of chicken are raised in low and lower to middle income countries (LMICs) under resource limited, small scale production systems, which necessitates a low tech, cost effective means of conserving diversity is needed. Here, we validate a simple biobanking technique using cryopreserved embryonic chicken gonads. The gonads are quickly isolated, visually sexed, pooled by sex, and cryopreserved. Subsequently, the stored material is thawed and dissociated before injection into sterile host chicken embryos. By using pooled GFP and RFP-labelled donor gonadal cells and Sire Dam Surrogate (SDS) mating, we demonstrate that chicks deriving entirely from male and female donor germ cells are hatched. This technology will enable ongoing efforts to conserve chicken genetic diversity for both commercial and small holder farmers, and to preserve existing genetic resources at poultry research facilities.

Via systematic review with narrative synthesis of findings, we aimed to document the ways by which researchers have defined, operationalized, and examined sleep variability among athletes. We identified studies in which scholars examined intraperson variability in sleep among athletes via a search of six databases (Web of Science, Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, CINHAL Plus, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global) using a protocol that included keywords for the target outcome (sleep*), population (athlet* OR sport*), and outcome operationalization (variability OR variation OR “standard deviation” OR fluctuate OR fluctuation OR stability OR instability OR reactivity OR IIV OR intraindividual). We complemented this primary search with citation searching of eligible articles. Assessments of study quality captured eight core elements, namely aims/hypotheses, sample size justification, sample representativeness, number of days sleep assessed, measures of sleep and its correlates, missing data, and inferences and conclusions. From a total of 1209 potentially relevant papers, we identified 16 studies as meeting our eligibility criteria. Concept definitions of variability were notably absent from this work and where available were vague. Quantitative deviations from one's typical level of target sleep metrics reflected the essence by which all but one of the research teams operationalized sleep variability. We assessed the overall quality of empirical work as moderate in nature. We propose a working definition of sleep variability that can inform knowledge generation on the temporal, day‐to‐day dynamics of sleep functioning that is required for personalized interventions for optimizing sleep health.