Heritability of quantitative characters of local black rice (Oryza sativa L.) results of generation F3

Local Black rice is a food crop variety that has a low productivity level and a longer planting time than other colored rice. In addition, black rice contains anthocyanins, which are antioxidant molecules that can counteract free radicals in the human body. Anthocyanin levels can be increased by producing full black potential lines. Effective and efficient selection with heritability analysis. This study aims to determine the heritability of the agronomic character of black rice from the F3 generation line. The study was conducted in the Manipi Sinjai rice field in February – August 2020. The experiment used was a completely randomized design, there were 17 lines with 3 replications. The data obtained were analyzed by means of variance, and if there was a significant effect of treatment, further tests were carried out with the BNT 0.05 test. In addition, the heritability of the observed characters was determined. The results showed that the character of plant height in the flowering phase, days to 50% flowering, and the percentage of grain with full black endosperm had heritability values with high criteria.

Heritability Analysis in Twins Indicates a Genetic Basis for Velopharyngeal Morphology

The velopharyngeal mechanism is comprised of several muscular components that act in a coordinated manner to control airflow through the nose and mouth. Proper velopharyngeal function is essential for normal speech, swallowing, and breathing. The genetic basis of normal-range velopharyngeal morphology is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to estimate the heritability of velopharyngeal dimensions. We measured five velopharyngeal variables (velar length, velar thickness, effective velar length, levator muscle length and pharyngeal depth) from MRIs of 155 monozygotic and 208 dizygotic twin pairs and then calculated heritability for these traits using a structural equation modeling approach. The heritability estimates were statistically significant (95% confidence intervals excluded zero) and ranged from 0.19 to 0.46. There was also evidence of significant genetic correlations between pairs of traits, pointing to the influence of common genetic effects. These results indicate that genetic factors influence variation in clinically relevant velopharyngeal structures.

Bayesian sparse heritability analysis with high-dimensional neuroimaging phenotypes

Summary Heritability analysis plays a central role in quantitative genetics to describe genetic contribution to human complex traits and prioritize downstream analyses under large-scale phenotypes. Existing works largely focus on modeling single phenotype and currently available multivariate phenotypic methods often suffer from scaling and interpretation. In this article, motivated by understanding how genetic underpinning impacts human brain variation, we develop an integrative Bayesian heritability analysis to jointly estimate heritabilities for high-dimensional neuroimaging traits. To induce sparsity and incorporate brain anatomical configuration, we impose hierarchical selection among both regional and local measurements based on brain structural network and voxel dependence. We also use a nonparametric Dirichlet process mixture model to realize grouping among single nucleotide polymorphism-associated phenotypic variations, providing biological plausibility. Through extensive simulations, we show the proposed method outperforms existing ones in heritability estimation and heritable traits selection under various scenarios. We finally apply the method to two large-scale imaging genetics datasets: the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and United Kingdom Biobank and show biologically meaningful results.

Dietary Influence on Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure in the TwinsUK Cohort

Nutrition plays a key role in blood pressure (BP) regulation. Here, we examine associations between nutrient intakes and BP in a large predominantly female population-based cohort. We assessed the correlation between 45 nutrients (from food frequency questionnaires) and systolic BP/diastolic BP (SBP/DBP) in 3889 individuals from TwinsUK not on hypertensive treatments and replicated in an independent subset of monozygotic twins discordant for nutrient intake (17–242 pairs). Results from both analyses were meta-analysed. For significant nutrients, we calculated heritability using structural equation modelling. We identified and replicated 15 nutrients associated with SBP, 9 also being associated with DBP, adjusting for covariates and multiple testing. 14 of those had a heritable component (h2: 27.1–57.6%). Strong associations with SBP were observed for riboflavin (Beta(SE) = −1.49(0.38), P = 1.00 × 10−4) and tryptophan (−0.31(0.01), P = 5 × 10−4), while with DBP for alcohol (0.05(0.07), P = 1.00 × 10−4) and lactose (−0.05(0.0), P = 1.3 × 10−3). Two multivariable nutrient scores, combining independently SBP/DBP-associated nutrients, explained 22% of the variance in SBP and 13.6% of the variance in DBP. Moreover, bivariate heritability analysis suggested that nutrients and BP share some genetic influences. We confirm current understanding and extend the panel of dietary nutrients implicated in BP regulation underscoring the value of nutrient focused dietary research in preventing and managing hypertension.

Heritability Analysis of Local Corn Cultivars from Kisar Island Southwest Maluku After Induced with Colchicine

In the plant breeding program, selection is one process which aimed to obtain some varieties with superior traits. Within this process, one of criteria that must be consider is the wide genetic diversity of the plant which was selected, and how these traits are inherited. The purpose of this research was to determine (1) the influence of cultivar differences and the colchicine concentration towards the growth and production of local corn cultivar from Kisar Island Maluku, (2) to determine the heritability of growth and production variables after induced with colchicine. Completely randomized block design was used in this research with factorial design that consist of two factors i.e corn cultivar and colchicine concentration. The research procedure starts from field and seed preparation, immersion of seed into the colchicine solution, transplantation of seed into the field, plant maintenance, and harvesting. The variable measured including growth and production variables of corn. The analysis of variance showed a significant effect of cultivar differences on all growth and production variables (p value > 0.05), while colchicine concentration only showed a significant effect toward the plant height and number of seed per ear. The heritability analysis result showed that all variables observed were in high category. The different corn cultivars have a significant effect on all the growth and production, while the colchicine concentration only affect the plant height and number of seed per ear, and the heritability were in high category. This research provides useful information to farmers how to use colchicine to trigger plant growth and production. It can be used as an information in selecting corn cultivars with high yield potential.

Novel Approaches for Identifying the Molecular Background of Schizophrenia

Recent advances in psychiatric genetics have led to the discovery of dozens of genomic loci associated with schizophrenia. However, a gap exists between the detection of genetic associations and understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms. This review describes the basic approaches used in the so-called post-GWAS studies to generate biological interpretation of the existing population genetic data, including both molecular (creation and analysis of knockout animals, exploration of the transcriptional effects of common variants in human brain cells) and computational (fine-mapping of causal variability, gene set enrichment analysis, partitioned heritability analysis) methods. The results of the crucial studies, in which these approaches were used to uncover the molecular and neurobiological basis of the disease, are also reported.

Prevalence and Heritability of Handedness in a Hong Kong Chinese Twin and Singleton Sample

Left-Handedness prevalence has been consistently reported at around 10% with heritability estimates at around 25%. Higher left-handedness prevalence has been reported in males and in twins. Lower prevalence has been reported in Asia, but it remains unclear whether this is due to biological or cultural factors. Most studies are based on samples with European ethnicities and using the preferred hand for writing as the key assessment. Here, we investigated handedness in a sample of Chinese school children in Hong Kong, including 426 singletons and 205 pairs of twins, using both the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory and Pegboard Task. Based on a binary definition of writing hand, we found a higher prevalence of left-handedness (8%) than what was previously reported in Asian datasets. We found no evidence of increased left-handedness in twins, but our results were in line with previous findings showing that males have a higher tendency to be left-handed than females. Heritability was similar for both hand preference (21%) and laterality indexes (22%). However, these two handedness measures present only a moderate correlation (.42) and appear to be underpinned by different genetic factors. In summary, we report new reference data for an ethnic group usually underrepresented in the literature. Our heritability analysis supports the idea that different measures will capture different components of handedness and, as a consequence, datasets assessed with heterogeneous criteria are not easily combined or compared.