Project description:The genetic foundation of chicken tail feather color is not very well studied to date, though that of body feather color is extensively explored. In the present study, we used a synthetic chicken dwarf line (DW), which was originated from the hybrids between a black tail chicken breed, Rhode Island Red (RIR) and a white tail breed, Dwarf Layer (DL), to understand the genetic rules of the white/black tail color. The DW line still contain the individuals with black or white tails, even if the body feather are predominantly red, after more than ten generation of self-crossing and being selected for the body feather color. We firstly performed four crosses using the DW line chickens including black tail male to female, reciprocal crosses between the black and white, and white male to female to elucidate the inheritance pattern of the white/black tail. We found that (i) the white/black tail feather colors are independent of body feather color and (ii) the phenotype are autosomal simple trait and (iii) the white are dominant to the black in the DW lines. Furtherly, we performed a genome-wide association (GWA) analysis to determine the candidate genomic regions underlying the tail feather color by using black tail chickens from the RIR and DW chickens and white individuals from DW lines.
Project description:In this study, we used the illumina high throughput sequencing approach (Sequencing-By-Synthesis, or SBS) to develop the sequence resource of black pepper. To identify micro RNAs functioning in stress response of the black pepper plant, small RNA libraries were prepared from the leaf and root of Phytophthora capsici infected plants, leaves from drought stressed and control plants.
Project description:The black nectar of Melianthus flowers is thought to serve as a visual attractant to pollinators, but the chemical identity and synthesis of the black pigment are unknown. Here we report that the black nectar contains a natural analog of iron-gall ink, which humans have used since medieval times. Specifically, dark black nectar at anthesis contains high levels of ellagic acid and iron; synthetic solutions of ellagic acid and iron(III) recapitulate the black color of the nectar. Conversely, lightly colored nectars before and after anthesis contain significantly lower levels of ellagic acid and iron, but higher levels of gallic acid. We then explored the possibility of post-secretory synthesis of ellagic acid from gallic acid. Indeed, Melianthus nectar contains a peroxidase that oxidizes gallic acid to form ellagic acid. Reactions containing the nectar peroxidase, gallic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and iron can fully recreate the black color of the nectar. Visual modeling indicates that the black color is both visible and conspicuous to birds within the context of the flower. In summary, the black nectar of Melianthus is derived from an ellagic acid-Fe complex analogous to iron-gall ink and is likely involved in the attraction of passerine bird pollinators.
Project description:we compared the skin transcriptomes of the black- and white-coated region from the Boer and Macheng Black crossbred goat with black head and white body using the Illumina RNA-Seq method. Six cDNA libraries derived from skin samples of the white coat region (n = 3) and black coat region (n = 3) were constructed from three full-sib goats. On average, we obtained approximately 76.5 and 73.5 million reads for each skin sample of black coat and white coat, respectively, of which 75.39% and 76.05% reads were covered in the genome database. Our study provides insight into the transcriptional regulation of two distinct coat color that might serve as a key resource for understanding coat color pigmentation of goat.