C Gorni - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by C Gorni
European Food Research and Technology, 2010
Listeria and Campylobacter genera include some of the most widely spread human pathogens across E... more Listeria and Campylobacter genera include some of the most widely spread human pathogens across Europe and represent a serious health threat, especially to children, immunocompromised people and pregnant women. Both genera are frequently isolated from farm animals and food; therefore, their rapid detection is important for food safety and to prevent disease outbreaks. A rapid detection approach based on the combination of ligation detection reaction and universal array (LDR-UA) was developed to reveal the presence of Listeria and Campylobacter pathogenic species and to identify the Division (I, II and III) of L. monocytogenes isolates. The approach was tested Wrst on reference strains then on Weld isolates. The LDR-UA approach showed high sensitivity and high speci-Wcity in reliably discriminate target sequences diVering in as little as one base pair, thus facilitating the discrimination of closely related strains.
Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology, 2009
We looked for breed-specific SNPs by comparing genomic sequences from Nelore (N = 16) and Holstei... more We looked for breed-specific SNPs by comparing genomic sequences from Nelore (N = 16) and Holstein (N = 16) for candidate genes (TGF-␣, IFN-␥, IP-10, TNF-␣, MIP-1␣, IGF-1 and MCP-1) we had previously determined to be differentially expressed in the tick-infested skin of resistant hosts. A total of 40 SNPs were found, at least 5 SNPs per gene, and several alleles were found to be breed-specific. The results provide information that will allow for association studies in composite/segregating populations resulting from crosses of B. taurus and B. indicus breeds to ascertain if these markers are associated with causal mutations which confer tick resistance to B. indicus cattle.
Italian Journal of Animal Science, 2010
Tapasin, TAP1 and TAP2 are involved in the assembly of MHC class I molecules. The genes encoding ... more Tapasin, TAP1 and TAP2 are involved in the assembly of MHC class I molecules. The genes encoding these three products belong to the Major Histocompatibility Complex: in chicken, Tapasin is located between the two class IIb genes, while TAP1 and TAP2 are found between the two class I genes. The current study aimed at the molecular characterization of these three genes. Starting from Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (11 in Tapasin, 18 in TAP1 and 21 in TAP2) previously discovered by the authors within these genes, the nucleotide diversity was assessed at each locus. Moreover, the haplotypes were reconstructed for each individual and the genetic distances between the chicken lines and breeds were estimated. From the analysis of the nucleotide diversity values, variable polymorphism rates could be observed among the three genes. In the three analyzed loci the SNPs rates were higher than the reported chicken genome mean nucleotide diversity of 5 SNPs kb -1 . The calculation of the genetic distances permitted, generally, the distinction of animals among the analyzed lines/breeds.
BMC Cell Biology, 2009
Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been recently investigated for their potential use... more Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been recently investigated for their potential use in regenerative medicine. MSCs, in particular, have great potential, as in various reports they have shown pluripotency for differentiating into many different cell types. However, the ability of MSCs to differentiate into tendon cells in vitro has not been fully investigated.
Animal Genetics, 2011
Suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) was used to analyse the muscle transcriptome and iden... more Suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) was used to analyse the muscle transcriptome and identify genes affecting meat quality within an Italian pig population of Large White and Landrace purebred individuals. Seven phenotypes were recorded at slaughter: dorsal fat thickness, ham fat thickness, ham fat coverage, muscle compactness, marbling, meat colour and colour uniformity. Two subtractive libraries were created from longissimus dorsi tissue of selected pigs with extreme phenotypes for meat quality. Eighty-four differentially expressed ESTs were identified, which showed homology to expressed pig sequences and/or to genomic pig sequences produced within the pig genome project. Sixty-eight sequences were mapped on the pig genome, and most of these sequences co-localized with the same chromosomal positions as QTLs that have been previously identified for meat quality. Thirty sequences, including eight matching known genes previously related to muscle metabolic pathways, were selected to statistically validate their differential expression. Association analysis and t-test results indicated that 28 ESTs of the 30 analysed were associated with phenotypes investigated here and have significant differential expression levels (P £ 0.05) between the two tails of the phenotypic distribution.
TAG Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 2001
We exploited the AFLP® 1 technique to map and characterise quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for gra... more We exploited the AFLP® 1 technique to map and characterise quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain yield and two grain-related traits of a maize segregating population. Two maize elite inbred lines were crossed to produce 229 F 2 individuals which were genotyped with 66 RFLP and 246 AFLP marker loci. By selfing the F 2 plants 229 F 3 lines were produced and subsequently crossed to two inbred testers (T1 and T2). Each series of testcrosses was evaluated in field trials for grain yield, dry matter concentration, and test weight. The efficiency of generating AFLP markers was substantially higher relative to RFLP markers in the same population, and the speed at which they were generated showed a great potential for application in marker-assisted selection. AFLP markers covered linkage group regions left uncovered by RFLPs; in particular at telomeric regions, previously almost devoided of markers. This increase of genome coverage afforded by the inclusion of the AFLPs revealed new QTL locations for all the traits investigated and allowed us to map telomeric QTLs with higher precision. The present study has also provided an opportunity to compare simple (SIM) and composite interval mapping (CIM) for QTL analysis. Our results indicated that the method of CIM employed in this study has greater power in the detection of QTLs, and provided more precise and accurate estimates of QTL positions and effects than SIM. For all traits and both testers we detected a total of 36 QTLs, of which only two were in common between testers. This suggested that the choice of a tester for identifying QTL alleles for use in improving an inbred is critical and that the expression of QTL alleles identified may be tester-specific.
Ampli®ed fragment length polymorphism (AFLP Ò ) markers were used to investigate the genetic vari... more Ampli®ed fragment length polymorphism (AFLP Ò ) markers were used to investigate the genetic variation in a sample of seven goat (Capra hircus) populations. A total of 210 individuals (30 per population) were analysed using seven selected AFLP primer combinations that produced 219 clear polymorphisms. Four autochthonous goat breeds (Bionda dell'Adamello, Frisa, Orobica and Verzaschese), two primary populations, one from the Lombardy Alps (Val di Livo) and the other from Sardinia island (Sarda) and a reference cosmopolitan breed (Saanen) were included in the analysis. The expected heterozygosity (Het) did not differ signi®cantly among breeds (range 0.21±0.24). No breed speci®c markers were identi®ed. The variability at AFLP loci was largely maintained within breeds, as indicated by the coef®cient of genetic differentiation (Gst) value (0.11). Dice similarities calculated between pairs of individuals belonging to the same or to different breeds largely overlapped. Bootstrapping on markers indicated that the coef®cient of variation (CV) of the genetic indexes tested decreases only marginally by adding markers over 100 AFLPs. Cluster analysis based on standard genetic distance between breeds indicates that Sarda is the most distant population, while Bionda, Frisa, Verzaschese and Val di Livo seem to be highly related populations. Interestingly, Saanen is closer than Orobica to the other four goat populations of the Lombardy Alps. Principal co-ordinates analysis based on Dice similarities con®rms these observations. Genetic diversity of the goat populations investigated con®rms what is expected on the basis of their geographical location. Results from Orobica are not correlated with geographical distances and may re¯ect undocumented migrations and gene¯ows and identify an original genetic resource.
Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, 2001
... The somatic originality of the Val di Livo goat may be attributed either to environmental fac... more ... The somatic originality of the Val di Livo goat may be attributed either to environmental factors or to selection pressure rather than to genomic ... The combined use of random breed-specific markers and expressed genes will allow a global assessment of the genome that might ...
![Research paper thumbnail of Enriching the bovine microsatellite Radiation Hybrid map with AFLP markers [Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism; DNA]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/46147912/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](RIASSUNTO -Arricchimento della mappa RH di bovino con marcatori AFLP ® -La tecnologia AFLP è stat... more RIASSUNTO -Arricchimento della mappa RH di bovino con marcatori AFLP ® -La tecnologia AFLP è stata adattata all'analisi di pannelli di ibridi di radiazione incrementando il numero di nucleotidi selettivi al 3' dei primer utilizzati, così semplificando il profilo elettroforetico e riducendo la probabilità di comigrazione delle bande bovine con quelle di criceto. Trentasette combinazioni di primer hanno prodotto 747 bande di origine bovina. Di queste, 650 sono risultate significativamente associate con test a due punti a 1222 marcatori microsatelliti già mappati sui 29 autosomi e sui cromosomi X e Y del bovino. Si riporta la mappatura preliminare multipoint di BTA20, che conferma l'utilità dei marcatori AFLP per arricchire le mappe RH e favorire studi di clonaggio per posizione.
TAG Theoretical and …, 2001
We exploited the AFLP® 1 technique to map and characterise quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for gra... more We exploited the AFLP® 1 technique to map and characterise quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain yield and two grain-related traits of a maize segregating population. Two maize elite inbred lines were crossed to produce 229 F 2 individuals which were genotyped with 66 RFLP and 246 AFLP marker loci. By selfing the F 2 plants 229 F 3 lines were produced and subsequently crossed to two inbred testers (T1 and T2). Each series of testcrosses was evaluated in field trials for grain yield, dry matter concentration, and test weight. The efficiency of generating AFLP markers was substantially higher relative to RFLP markers in the same population, and the speed at which they were generated showed a great potential for application in marker-assisted selection. AFLP markers covered linkage group regions left uncovered by RFLPs; in particular at telomeric regions, previously almost devoided of markers. This increase of genome coverage afforded by the inclusion of the AFLPs revealed new QTL locations for all the traits investigated and allowed us to map telomeric QTLs with higher precision. The present study has also provided an opportunity to compare simple (SIM) and composite interval mapping (CIM) for QTL analysis. Our results indicated that the method of CIM employed in this study has greater power in the detection of QTLs, and provided more precise and accurate estimates of QTL positions and effects than SIM. For all traits and both testers we detected a total of 36 QTLs, of which only two were in common between testers. This suggested that the choice of a tester for identifying QTL alleles for use in improving an inbred is critical and that the expression of QTL alleles identified may be tester-specific.
Italian Journal of Animal Science, 2010
In order to identify candidate genes and molecular mechanisms that influence meat quality and pro... more In order to identify candidate genes and molecular mechanisms that influence meat quality and production in pigs, microarray experiments were carried out to find differences in gene expression levels between two pools of six individuals, constituting the extreme tails of the Gaussian distribution of seven adjusted phenotypes of 100 Landrace and Large White animals. The phenotypes considered in this study were: muscle compactness, marbling, colour uniformity, fat covering, colour, dorsal fat, thickness, ham fat thickness. 437 differentially expressed ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) were found, clustering in different pathways according to their ontology. In particular, 73 functional categories were identified and ten of them could have a role in meat quality. Among the ESTs belonging to these pathways, seven of them were selected to be validated in quantitative real-time RT-PCR.
Italian Journal of Animal Science, 2010
RIASSUNTO -Valutazione di sequenze intersperse ripetute per l'analisi del genoma caprino. Tra le ... more RIASSUNTO -Valutazione di sequenze intersperse ripetute per l'analisi del genoma caprino. Tra le classi di sequenze intersperse ripetute, le Mammalian Interspersed Reapeats (MIR) sono utilizzate per la definizione di relazioni filogenetiche tra diversi gruppi tassonomici. Analizzando un ristretto numero di individui non imparentati, appartenenti a 7 diverse razze caprine italiane, é stata valutata la presenza di polimorfismi interspecie per questa classe di sequenze. I risultati ottenuti indicano che il 66% dei marcatori, prodotti amplificando sequenze inter-MIR, sono polimorfici tra le razze analizzate. Il calcolo dei valori di eterozigosi attesa entro e tra razze ed il valore di Fst indica che, nel campione da noi considerato, la variabilità genetica osservata é legata a differenze tra razze e corrisponde al 35,5% della variabilità genetica totale. Questi dati suggeriscono il possibile utilizzo delle MIR in studi di diversità genetica, completando il quadro delle informazioni già disponibili per geni, mtDNA e marcatori neutri.
Science (New York, N.Y.), Jan 24, 2009
The imprints of domestication and breed development on the genomes of livestock likely differ fro... more The imprints of domestication and breed development on the genomes of livestock likely differ from those of companion animals. A deep draft sequence assembly of shotgun reads from a single Hereford female and comparative sequences sampled from six additional breeds were used to develop probes to interrogate 37,470 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 497 cattle from 19 geographically and biologically diverse breeds. These data show that cattle have undergone a rapid recent decrease in effective population size from a very large ancestral population, possibly due to bottlenecks associated with domestication, selection, and breed formation. Domestication and artificial selection appear to have left detectable signatures of selection within the cattle genome, yet the current levels of diversity within breeds are at least as great as exists within humans.
Chromosome Research, 2000
We have investigated the use of AFLP 1 technology as a tool for the high throughput enrichment of... more We have investigated the use of AFLP 1 technology as a tool for the high throughput enrichment of Radiation Hybrid (RH) maps. The 3000 rad TM112 bovine RH panel was assayed with 37 EcoRI/TaqI AFLP primer combinations. The number of selective nucleotides used during PCR was increased to seven, to reduce the complexity of the AFLP profile and minimise the overlap between hamster and bovine bands co-amplified from hybrid cell clones. Seven-hundred-forty-seven bovine AFLP bands were amplified that could be distinguished following electrophoresis. Repeatability was tested within and between laboratories on independent template preparations and an error rate of 1.3% found. Two-point linkage analysis clustered 428 AFLP fragments in 39 linkage groups of at least 4 markers. Multi-point maps were constructed for 5 sample linkage groups. The study demonstrated that the AFLP approach could be used to rapidly screen for the most informative clones during panel construction and to increase the number of markers on RH maps, which could be useful for joining linkage groups formed by other markers. The use of AFLP markers as anchor points between existing RH maps and other physical maps, such as BAC contigs, is also discussed.
Genetics and Molecular Research, 2008
The suppressive subtractive hybridization technique was previously used by the authors to identif... more The suppressive subtractive hybridization technique was previously used by the authors to identify candidate genes for meat quality in pig. A set of ESTs homologous (>95%) to genes involved in muscle metabolism is reported in the present paper. Four ESTs homologous to MYH1, KALRN, MLC2V, and SNX13 genes plus two genes (AK1, PPIA) used as housekeeping for muscle tissue were assigned to porcine chromosomes using the INRA-Minnesota 7000 rads radiation hybrid panel (IMpRH). Our data confirm and refine the cytogenetic position of the KALRN, AK1, PPIA genes, improve the existing physical map of MYH1 and assign two new genes (MLC2V and SNX13) to swine chromosomes.
European Food Research and Technology, 2010
Listeria and Campylobacter genera include some of the most widely spread human pathogens across E... more Listeria and Campylobacter genera include some of the most widely spread human pathogens across Europe and represent a serious health threat, especially to children, immunocompromised people and pregnant women. Both genera are frequently isolated from farm animals and food; therefore, their rapid detection is important for food safety and to prevent disease outbreaks. A rapid detection approach based on the combination of ligation detection reaction and universal array (LDR-UA) was developed to reveal the presence of Listeria and Campylobacter pathogenic species and to identify the Division (I, II and III) of L. monocytogenes isolates. The approach was tested Wrst on reference strains then on Weld isolates. The LDR-UA approach showed high sensitivity and high speci-Wcity in reliably discriminate target sequences diVering in as little as one base pair, thus facilitating the discrimination of closely related strains.
Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology, 2009
We looked for breed-specific SNPs by comparing genomic sequences from Nelore (N = 16) and Holstei... more We looked for breed-specific SNPs by comparing genomic sequences from Nelore (N = 16) and Holstein (N = 16) for candidate genes (TGF-␣, IFN-␥, IP-10, TNF-␣, MIP-1␣, IGF-1 and MCP-1) we had previously determined to be differentially expressed in the tick-infested skin of resistant hosts. A total of 40 SNPs were found, at least 5 SNPs per gene, and several alleles were found to be breed-specific. The results provide information that will allow for association studies in composite/segregating populations resulting from crosses of B. taurus and B. indicus breeds to ascertain if these markers are associated with causal mutations which confer tick resistance to B. indicus cattle.
Italian Journal of Animal Science, 2010
Tapasin, TAP1 and TAP2 are involved in the assembly of MHC class I molecules. The genes encoding ... more Tapasin, TAP1 and TAP2 are involved in the assembly of MHC class I molecules. The genes encoding these three products belong to the Major Histocompatibility Complex: in chicken, Tapasin is located between the two class IIb genes, while TAP1 and TAP2 are found between the two class I genes. The current study aimed at the molecular characterization of these three genes. Starting from Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (11 in Tapasin, 18 in TAP1 and 21 in TAP2) previously discovered by the authors within these genes, the nucleotide diversity was assessed at each locus. Moreover, the haplotypes were reconstructed for each individual and the genetic distances between the chicken lines and breeds were estimated. From the analysis of the nucleotide diversity values, variable polymorphism rates could be observed among the three genes. In the three analyzed loci the SNPs rates were higher than the reported chicken genome mean nucleotide diversity of 5 SNPs kb -1 . The calculation of the genetic distances permitted, generally, the distinction of animals among the analyzed lines/breeds.
BMC Cell Biology, 2009
Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been recently investigated for their potential use... more Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been recently investigated for their potential use in regenerative medicine. MSCs, in particular, have great potential, as in various reports they have shown pluripotency for differentiating into many different cell types. However, the ability of MSCs to differentiate into tendon cells in vitro has not been fully investigated.
Animal Genetics, 2011
Suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) was used to analyse the muscle transcriptome and iden... more Suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) was used to analyse the muscle transcriptome and identify genes affecting meat quality within an Italian pig population of Large White and Landrace purebred individuals. Seven phenotypes were recorded at slaughter: dorsal fat thickness, ham fat thickness, ham fat coverage, muscle compactness, marbling, meat colour and colour uniformity. Two subtractive libraries were created from longissimus dorsi tissue of selected pigs with extreme phenotypes for meat quality. Eighty-four differentially expressed ESTs were identified, which showed homology to expressed pig sequences and/or to genomic pig sequences produced within the pig genome project. Sixty-eight sequences were mapped on the pig genome, and most of these sequences co-localized with the same chromosomal positions as QTLs that have been previously identified for meat quality. Thirty sequences, including eight matching known genes previously related to muscle metabolic pathways, were selected to statistically validate their differential expression. Association analysis and t-test results indicated that 28 ESTs of the 30 analysed were associated with phenotypes investigated here and have significant differential expression levels (P £ 0.05) between the two tails of the phenotypic distribution.
TAG Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 2001
We exploited the AFLP® 1 technique to map and characterise quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for gra... more We exploited the AFLP® 1 technique to map and characterise quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain yield and two grain-related traits of a maize segregating population. Two maize elite inbred lines were crossed to produce 229 F 2 individuals which were genotyped with 66 RFLP and 246 AFLP marker loci. By selfing the F 2 plants 229 F 3 lines were produced and subsequently crossed to two inbred testers (T1 and T2). Each series of testcrosses was evaluated in field trials for grain yield, dry matter concentration, and test weight. The efficiency of generating AFLP markers was substantially higher relative to RFLP markers in the same population, and the speed at which they were generated showed a great potential for application in marker-assisted selection. AFLP markers covered linkage group regions left uncovered by RFLPs; in particular at telomeric regions, previously almost devoided of markers. This increase of genome coverage afforded by the inclusion of the AFLPs revealed new QTL locations for all the traits investigated and allowed us to map telomeric QTLs with higher precision. The present study has also provided an opportunity to compare simple (SIM) and composite interval mapping (CIM) for QTL analysis. Our results indicated that the method of CIM employed in this study has greater power in the detection of QTLs, and provided more precise and accurate estimates of QTL positions and effects than SIM. For all traits and both testers we detected a total of 36 QTLs, of which only two were in common between testers. This suggested that the choice of a tester for identifying QTL alleles for use in improving an inbred is critical and that the expression of QTL alleles identified may be tester-specific.
Ampli®ed fragment length polymorphism (AFLP Ò ) markers were used to investigate the genetic vari... more Ampli®ed fragment length polymorphism (AFLP Ò ) markers were used to investigate the genetic variation in a sample of seven goat (Capra hircus) populations. A total of 210 individuals (30 per population) were analysed using seven selected AFLP primer combinations that produced 219 clear polymorphisms. Four autochthonous goat breeds (Bionda dell'Adamello, Frisa, Orobica and Verzaschese), two primary populations, one from the Lombardy Alps (Val di Livo) and the other from Sardinia island (Sarda) and a reference cosmopolitan breed (Saanen) were included in the analysis. The expected heterozygosity (Het) did not differ signi®cantly among breeds (range 0.21±0.24). No breed speci®c markers were identi®ed. The variability at AFLP loci was largely maintained within breeds, as indicated by the coef®cient of genetic differentiation (Gst) value (0.11). Dice similarities calculated between pairs of individuals belonging to the same or to different breeds largely overlapped. Bootstrapping on markers indicated that the coef®cient of variation (CV) of the genetic indexes tested decreases only marginally by adding markers over 100 AFLPs. Cluster analysis based on standard genetic distance between breeds indicates that Sarda is the most distant population, while Bionda, Frisa, Verzaschese and Val di Livo seem to be highly related populations. Interestingly, Saanen is closer than Orobica to the other four goat populations of the Lombardy Alps. Principal co-ordinates analysis based on Dice similarities con®rms these observations. Genetic diversity of the goat populations investigated con®rms what is expected on the basis of their geographical location. Results from Orobica are not correlated with geographical distances and may re¯ect undocumented migrations and gene¯ows and identify an original genetic resource.
Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, 2001
... The somatic originality of the Val di Livo goat may be attributed either to environmental fac... more ... The somatic originality of the Val di Livo goat may be attributed either to environmental factors or to selection pressure rather than to genomic ... The combined use of random breed-specific markers and expressed genes will allow a global assessment of the genome that might ...
RIASSUNTO -Arricchimento della mappa RH di bovino con marcatori AFLP ® -La tecnologia AFLP è stat... more RIASSUNTO -Arricchimento della mappa RH di bovino con marcatori AFLP ® -La tecnologia AFLP è stata adattata all'analisi di pannelli di ibridi di radiazione incrementando il numero di nucleotidi selettivi al 3' dei primer utilizzati, così semplificando il profilo elettroforetico e riducendo la probabilità di comigrazione delle bande bovine con quelle di criceto. Trentasette combinazioni di primer hanno prodotto 747 bande di origine bovina. Di queste, 650 sono risultate significativamente associate con test a due punti a 1222 marcatori microsatelliti già mappati sui 29 autosomi e sui cromosomi X e Y del bovino. Si riporta la mappatura preliminare multipoint di BTA20, che conferma l'utilità dei marcatori AFLP per arricchire le mappe RH e favorire studi di clonaggio per posizione.
TAG Theoretical and …, 2001
We exploited the AFLP® 1 technique to map and characterise quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for gra... more We exploited the AFLP® 1 technique to map and characterise quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain yield and two grain-related traits of a maize segregating population. Two maize elite inbred lines were crossed to produce 229 F 2 individuals which were genotyped with 66 RFLP and 246 AFLP marker loci. By selfing the F 2 plants 229 F 3 lines were produced and subsequently crossed to two inbred testers (T1 and T2). Each series of testcrosses was evaluated in field trials for grain yield, dry matter concentration, and test weight. The efficiency of generating AFLP markers was substantially higher relative to RFLP markers in the same population, and the speed at which they were generated showed a great potential for application in marker-assisted selection. AFLP markers covered linkage group regions left uncovered by RFLPs; in particular at telomeric regions, previously almost devoided of markers. This increase of genome coverage afforded by the inclusion of the AFLPs revealed new QTL locations for all the traits investigated and allowed us to map telomeric QTLs with higher precision. The present study has also provided an opportunity to compare simple (SIM) and composite interval mapping (CIM) for QTL analysis. Our results indicated that the method of CIM employed in this study has greater power in the detection of QTLs, and provided more precise and accurate estimates of QTL positions and effects than SIM. For all traits and both testers we detected a total of 36 QTLs, of which only two were in common between testers. This suggested that the choice of a tester for identifying QTL alleles for use in improving an inbred is critical and that the expression of QTL alleles identified may be tester-specific.
Italian Journal of Animal Science, 2010
In order to identify candidate genes and molecular mechanisms that influence meat quality and pro... more In order to identify candidate genes and molecular mechanisms that influence meat quality and production in pigs, microarray experiments were carried out to find differences in gene expression levels between two pools of six individuals, constituting the extreme tails of the Gaussian distribution of seven adjusted phenotypes of 100 Landrace and Large White animals. The phenotypes considered in this study were: muscle compactness, marbling, colour uniformity, fat covering, colour, dorsal fat, thickness, ham fat thickness. 437 differentially expressed ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) were found, clustering in different pathways according to their ontology. In particular, 73 functional categories were identified and ten of them could have a role in meat quality. Among the ESTs belonging to these pathways, seven of them were selected to be validated in quantitative real-time RT-PCR.
Italian Journal of Animal Science, 2010
RIASSUNTO -Valutazione di sequenze intersperse ripetute per l'analisi del genoma caprino. Tra le ... more RIASSUNTO -Valutazione di sequenze intersperse ripetute per l'analisi del genoma caprino. Tra le classi di sequenze intersperse ripetute, le Mammalian Interspersed Reapeats (MIR) sono utilizzate per la definizione di relazioni filogenetiche tra diversi gruppi tassonomici. Analizzando un ristretto numero di individui non imparentati, appartenenti a 7 diverse razze caprine italiane, é stata valutata la presenza di polimorfismi interspecie per questa classe di sequenze. I risultati ottenuti indicano che il 66% dei marcatori, prodotti amplificando sequenze inter-MIR, sono polimorfici tra le razze analizzate. Il calcolo dei valori di eterozigosi attesa entro e tra razze ed il valore di Fst indica che, nel campione da noi considerato, la variabilità genetica osservata é legata a differenze tra razze e corrisponde al 35,5% della variabilità genetica totale. Questi dati suggeriscono il possibile utilizzo delle MIR in studi di diversità genetica, completando il quadro delle informazioni già disponibili per geni, mtDNA e marcatori neutri.
Science (New York, N.Y.), Jan 24, 2009
The imprints of domestication and breed development on the genomes of livestock likely differ fro... more The imprints of domestication and breed development on the genomes of livestock likely differ from those of companion animals. A deep draft sequence assembly of shotgun reads from a single Hereford female and comparative sequences sampled from six additional breeds were used to develop probes to interrogate 37,470 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 497 cattle from 19 geographically and biologically diverse breeds. These data show that cattle have undergone a rapid recent decrease in effective population size from a very large ancestral population, possibly due to bottlenecks associated with domestication, selection, and breed formation. Domestication and artificial selection appear to have left detectable signatures of selection within the cattle genome, yet the current levels of diversity within breeds are at least as great as exists within humans.
Chromosome Research, 2000
We have investigated the use of AFLP 1 technology as a tool for the high throughput enrichment of... more We have investigated the use of AFLP 1 technology as a tool for the high throughput enrichment of Radiation Hybrid (RH) maps. The 3000 rad TM112 bovine RH panel was assayed with 37 EcoRI/TaqI AFLP primer combinations. The number of selective nucleotides used during PCR was increased to seven, to reduce the complexity of the AFLP profile and minimise the overlap between hamster and bovine bands co-amplified from hybrid cell clones. Seven-hundred-forty-seven bovine AFLP bands were amplified that could be distinguished following electrophoresis. Repeatability was tested within and between laboratories on independent template preparations and an error rate of 1.3% found. Two-point linkage analysis clustered 428 AFLP fragments in 39 linkage groups of at least 4 markers. Multi-point maps were constructed for 5 sample linkage groups. The study demonstrated that the AFLP approach could be used to rapidly screen for the most informative clones during panel construction and to increase the number of markers on RH maps, which could be useful for joining linkage groups formed by other markers. The use of AFLP markers as anchor points between existing RH maps and other physical maps, such as BAC contigs, is also discussed.
Genetics and Molecular Research, 2008
The suppressive subtractive hybridization technique was previously used by the authors to identif... more The suppressive subtractive hybridization technique was previously used by the authors to identify candidate genes for meat quality in pig. A set of ESTs homologous (>95%) to genes involved in muscle metabolism is reported in the present paper. Four ESTs homologous to MYH1, KALRN, MLC2V, and SNX13 genes plus two genes (AK1, PPIA) used as housekeeping for muscle tissue were assigned to porcine chromosomes using the INRA-Minnesota 7000 rads radiation hybrid panel (IMpRH). Our data confirm and refine the cytogenetic position of the KALRN, AK1, PPIA genes, improve the existing physical map of MYH1 and assign two new genes (MLC2V and SNX13) to swine chromosomes.