| 1. |
- Bianchi, Matteo, et al.
(författare)
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A Multi-Breed Genome-Wide Association Analysis for Canine Hypothyroidism Identifies a Shared Major Risk Locus on CFA12
- 2015
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 10:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hypothyroidism is a complex clinical condition found in both humans and dogs, thought to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. In this study we present a multi-breed analysis of predisposing genetic risk factors for hypothyroidism in dogs using three high-risk breeds-the Gordon Setter, Hovawart and the Rhodesian Ridgeback. Using a genome-wide association approach and meta-analysis, we identified a major hypothyroidism risk locus shared by these breeds on chromosome 12 (p = 2.1x10(-11)). Further characterisation of the candidate region revealed a shared similar to 167 kb risk haplotype (4,915,018-5,081,823 bp), tagged by two SNPs in almost complete linkage disequilibrium. This breed-shared risk haplotype includes three genes (LHFPL5, SRPK1 and SLC26A8) and does not extend to the dog leukocyte antigen (DLA) class II gene cluster located in the vicinity. These three genes have not been identified as candidate genes for hypothyroid disease previously, but have functions that could potentially contribute to the development of the disease. Our results implicate the potential involvement of novel genes and pathways for the development of canine hypothyroidism, raising new possibilities for screening, breeding programmes and treatments in dogs. This study may also contribute to our understanding of the genetic etiology of human hypothyroid disease, which is one of the most common endocrine disorders in humans.
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| 2. |
- Edelfeldt, Stina, et al.
(författare)
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Age-Independent Adult Mortality in a Long-Lived Herb
- 2019
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Ingår i: Diversity. - : MDPI AG. - 1424-2818. ; 11:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Relative to mammals and birds, little is known about the mortality trajectories of perennial plants, as there are few long-term demographic studies following multiple yearly cohorts from birth to death. This is particularly important because if reproductively mature individuals show actuarial senescence, current estimations of life spans assuming constant survival would be incorrect. There is also a lack of studies documenting how life history trade-offs and disturbance influence the mortality trajectories of plants. We conducted Bayesian survival trajectory analyses (BaSTA) of a 33-year individual-based dataset of Pulsatilla vulgaris ssp. gotlandica. Mortality trajectories corresponded to Type III survivorship patterns, with rapidly decreasing annual mortality rates for young plants, but with constant mortality for reproductively mature individuals. We found trade-off effects resulting in a cost of growth for non-reproductive plants but no apparent cost of reproduction. Contrarily to our expectation, young plants that had previously shrunk in size had a lower mortality. However, accounting for trade-offs and disturbance only had minor effects on the mortality trajectories. We conclude that BaSTA is a useful tool for assessing mortality patterns in plants if only partial age information is available. Furthermore, if constant mortality is a general pattern in polycarpic plants, long-term studies may not be necessary to assess their age-dependent demography.
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| 3. |
- Edelfeldt, Stina, et al.
(författare)
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Demographic senescence and effects on population dynamics of a perennial plant
- 2019
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Ingår i: Ecology. - : WILEY. - 0012-9658 .- 1939-9170. ; 100:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Demographic rates in plants are usually assumed to be more stage or size dependent than age dependent, and aging is therefore not considered in demographic models. However, little is known about the effect of age on demographic rates, as there still are few studies based on long-term individual-based plant population data that consider both individual age and size. In addition, little is known about how aging of individuals may affect population dynamics. We present analyses of demographic data for three populations of Fumana procumbens collected 1985-2013, on individuals with known year of germination. We modeled age- and size-dependence of the vital rates of survival, growth, fruiting probability, and fruit number using thin plate spline regressions, and constructed an age x size integral projection model (IPM) to project population-level effects of aging. We found strong correlations between age and vital rates in solely age-based vital rate models, where vital rates initially increased with age, after which they stabilized and, in some cases, eventually declined. In survival models with both age and size, the effects of age were statistically significant, whereas size effects were insignificant at two of the sites. For other vital rates, most of the effect of age could be explained by size alone. In addition, including the age effects on survival in the IPM led to lower population growth rates compared to predictions of a size-only IPM. These results illustrate that demographic senescence does occur in perennial plants, which has only been demonstrated clearly in a few recent detailed studies. Moreover, we show that population projections may be overly optimistic if they do not consider plant age. We conclude that the possibility of demographic senescence should be considered in demographic population models, such as those used in viability analyses of threatened species.
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