Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Wing Shape to Identify Populations of Apis mellifera in Camagüey, Cuba.

A total of 45 Apis mellifera colonies were sampled from nine centers for rearing queens in the Camagüey province, Cuba. Wing geometric morphometric analysis was used to determine the ancestry and identify Africanization processes at different altitudes in managed honeybee populations on the island. A total of 350 reference wings were obtained from the pure subspecies: Apis mellifera mellifera, Apis mellifera carnica, Apis mellifera ligustica, Apis mellifera caucasia, Apis mellifera iberiensis, Apis mellifera intermissa, and Apis mellifera scutellata for the study. Our results showed that altitude influences wing shape; and that 96.0% (432) of the individuals were classified as Cuban hybrids, with a tendency to the formation of a new morphotype. In addition, a great similarity was found with the subspecies Apis mellifera mellifera, and it was confirmed that there is no Africanization due to the low presence of 0.44% (2) of this morphotype in the population under study. The greatest Mahalanobis distances were obtained for the comparisons between the center rearing of queens in the Camagüey province with the subspecies A. m. scutellata (D2 = 5.18); A. m. caucasia (D2 = 6.08); A. m. ligustica (D2 = 6.27); and A. m. carnica (D2 = 6.62). The well-defined pattern of wing shape produced by honeybee populations in Camagüey's centers for queen rearing suggests a Cuban hybrid. Moreover, it is essential to note that the populations of bees under investigation lack Africanized morphotypes, indicating that Camagüey bees have not interacted with the African lineage.

Pharmacological and Physiological Correlates of the Bidirectional Fear Phenotype of the Carioca Rats and Other Bidirectionally Selected Lines.

The Carioca rat lines originated from the selective bidirectional breeding of mates displaying extreme defense responses to contextual conditioned fear. After three generations, two distinct populations could be distinguished: the Carioca High- and Low-conditioned Freezing rats, CHF, and CLF, respectively. Later studies identified strong anxiety-like behaviors in the CHF line, while indications of impulsivity and hyperactivity were prominent in the CLF animals. The present review details the physiological and pharmacological-related findings obtained from these lines. The results discussed here point towards a dysfunctional fear circuitry in CHF rats, including alterations in key brain structures and the serotoninergic system. Moreover, data from these animals highlight important alterations in the stress-processing machinery and its associated systems, such as energy metabolism and antioxidative defense. Finally, evidence of an alteration in the dopaminergic pathway in CLF rats is also debated. Thus, accumulating data gathered over the years, place the Carioca lines as significant animal models for the study of psychiatric disorders, especially fear-related ones like anxiety.

High-sugar/high-fat diet modulates the effects of chronic stress in cariocas high- and low-conditioned freezing rats.

Stress and eating disorders are closely related and are a topic of major concern due to their burden on human health. Engaging in unhealthy eating habits may come as a result of stress, and it often serves to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety or as a distraction from the stressor itself or self-awareness. However, it can also lead to negative feelings of a person's body figure, guilty, or shame. As diverse as these consequences are in humans, so are the effects of the combined administration of stress and hypercaloric food in animals' models. In this study, we assessed the influence of individual innate behavioral predisposition on the effects of chronic unpredictable mild stress and the dietary supplementation with high-sugar/high-fat food. These conditions were applied to male Carioca low- and high-conditioned freezing (CLF and CHF) rats for 21 days. Behavioral results show that the hypercaloric supplement had a protective effect over the alterations caused by the stress. Notably, it was more strongly observed in CHF rather than CLF animals. As the chronic stress led to an impaired behavior in the contextual fear conditioning and the forced swimming tests in the CLF line, animals fed with the HSHF pellet scored responses similar to their untreated control. On CHF rats, these effects also were seen to a broader extent on the open field test, where the locomotor behavior was also increased. No major effects of the diet were seen in the unstressed groups. Overall, our results show that the influences of both chronic stress and hypercaloric feeding depend on innate differences in fear response traits of male Carioca rats.

Haloperidol and methylphenidate alter motor behavior and responses to conditioned fear of Carioca Low-conditioned Freezing rats.

Animal models are important tools for studying neuropsychological disorders. Considering their limitations, a more extensive translational research must encompass data that are generated from several models. Therefore, a comprehensive characterization of these models is needed in terms of behavior and neurophysiology. The present study evaluated the behavioral responses of Carioca Low-conditioned Freezing (CLF) rats to haloperidol and methylphenidate. The CLF breeding line is characterized by low freezing defensive responses to contextual cues that are associated with aversive stimuli. CLF rats exhibited a delayed response to haloperidol at lower doses, needing higher doses to reach similar levels of catatonia as control randomly bred animals. Methylphenidate increased freezing responses to conditioned fear and induced motor effects in the open field. Thus, CLF rats differ from controls in their responses to both haloperidol and methylphenidate. Because of the dopamine-related molecular targets of these drugs, we hypothesize that dopaminergic alterations related to those of animal models of hyperactivity and attention disorders might underlie the observed phenotypes of the CLF line of rats.

Behavioral effects of chronic stress in Carioca high- and low-conditioned freezing rats.

Chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) is a widely used model to study stress-coping strategies in rodents. Different factors have been shown to influence whether animals adopt passive or active coping responses to CUMS. Individual adaptation and susceptibility to the environment seem to play a critical role in this process. To further investigate this relationship, we examined the effects of CUMS on Carioca high- and low-conditioned freezing rats (CHF and CLF, respectively), bidirectional lines of animals selected for high and low freezing in response to contextual cues that were previously associated with footshocks. For this purpose, the behavior of CHF and CLF animals was evaluated in the contextual fear conditioning, open field, elevated T maze, and forced swimming tests before and after 21 days of CUMS. For all tests, CHF rats were more susceptible to the effects of CUMS compared to CLF. CHF animals exposed to CUMS displayed a reduction in freezing behavior, decreased number of entries and time spent in the center of the open field, greater latencies to become immobile, and increased avoidance and escaping behaviors in the elevated T maze. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis that a heightened susceptibility to the environment exerts a strong influence on coping responses to chronic stress.

Alcohol intake in Carioca High- and Low-conditioned Freezing rats.

Evidence from clinical and epidemiological studies point towards an association between generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and alcohol abuse. In the present study we investigated whether a similar relationship could be observed in an animal model of GAD. Specifically, we evaluated the alcohol intake of Carioca High- and Low-conditioned Freezing rats (CHF and CLF, respectively). Sex differences in alcohol drinking behavior were also studied. Male and female rats from randomized crossbreeding populations served as controls (CTL). Free- and forced-choice protocols were used to measure alcohol consumption, and quinine and saccharin were used as taste control solutions. Our results indicate that CHF rats consumed more alcohol than CLF and CTL ones in both the free-choice (6 and 10% concentrations) and the forced-choice (10% concentration) conditions. CHF female rats exhibited the highest amount of alcohol intake in the forced-choice condition. CHF females also consumed more quinine than CHF male rats. Finally, CHF rats exhibited lower saccharin consumption compared to CLF and CTL animals. Altogether, these results support the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between anxiety and alcohol intake, and provide further evidence for the use of CHF rats as a model of GAD.

GWAS to Identify Genetic Loci for Resistance to Yellow Rust in Wheat Pre-Breeding Lines Derived From Diverse Exotic Crosses.

Yellow rust (YR) or stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striformis f. sp tritici Eriks (Pst), is a major challenge to resistance breeding in wheat. A genome wide association study (GWAS) was performed using 22,415 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and 591 haplotypes to identify genomic regions associated with resistance to YR in a subset panel of 419 pre-breeding lines (PBLs) developed at International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT). The 419 PBLs were derived from an initial set of 984 PBLs generated by a three-way crossing scheme (exotic/elite1//elite2) among 25 best elites and 244 exotics (synthetics, landraces) from CIMMYT's germplasm bank. For the study, 419 PBLs were characterized with 22,415 high-quality DArTseq-SNPs and phenotyped for severity of YR disease at five locations in Mexico. A population structure was evident in the panel with three distinct subpopulations, and a genome-wide linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay of 2.5 cM was obtained. Across all five locations, 14 SNPs and 7 haplotype blocks were significantly (P < 0.001) associated with the disease severity explaining 6.0 to 14.1% and 7.9 to 19.9% of variation, respectively. Based on average LD decay of 2.5 cM, identified 14 SNP-trait associations were delimited to seven quantitative trait loci in total. Seven SNPs were part of the two haplotype blocks on chromosome 2A identified in haplotypes-based GWAS. In silico analysis of the identified SNPs showed hits with interesting candidate genes, which are related to pathogenic process or known to regulate induction of genes related to pathogenesis such as those coding for glunolactone oxidase, quinate O-hydroxycinnamoyl transferase, or two-component histidine kinase. The two-component histidine kinase, for example, acts as a sensor in the perception of phytohormones ethylene and cytokinin. Ethylene plays a very important role in regulation of multiple metabolic processes of plants, including induction of defense mechanisms mediated by jasmonate. The SNPs linked to the promising genes identified in the study can be used for marker-assisted selection.

Data describing Upland cotton cultivars and advanced breeding lines used in Colombia.

In the last century, more than a hundred of cultivars were used in the cotton production system in Colombia. Breeding for cultivars adapted to tropical environments had been the main purpose of the Colombian agricultural research institutions dedicated to cotton. Data describing yield and fiber quality traits of these cultivars (and the introduced ones mainly from USA) is scattered across grey literature which reduces chances of discovering, accessing and assessing this information.This data article contains databases describing i) Colombian and introduced Upland cotton cultivars used in Colombia and ii) ramulosis-resistance scores of lines developed by the Colombian breeding program. The first database was constructed from data extracted from grey literature mainly produced by ICA and CORPOICA (rebranded today as AGROSAVIA), the Colombian agricultural research agencies. The second one describes the Cereté lines (LCER) database. These advanced breeding lines were developed for improved yield performance in tropical environments, specifically monsoon and savanna climates. The LCER dataset also describes the ramulosis field resistance of these cultivars. Ramulosis is an endemic disease in South America caused by Colletotrichum gossypii var. cephalosporioides. The data in this article supports and augments information presented in the research articles [1]: and [3].

Behavioral Effects of Systemic, Infralimbic and Prelimbic Injections of a Serotonin 5-HT2A Antagonist in Carioca High- and Low-Conditioned Freezing Rats.

The role of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) and 5-HT2A receptors in anxiety has been extensively studied, mostly without considering individual differences in trait anxiety. Our laboratory developed two lines of animals that are bred for high and low freezing responses to contextual cues that are previously associated with footshock (Carioca High-conditioned Freezing [CHF] and Carioca Low-conditioned Freezing [CLF]). The present study investigated whether ketanserin, a preferential 5-HT2A receptor blocker, exerts distinct anxiety-like profiles in these two lines of animals. In the first experiment, the animals received a systemic injection of ketanserin and were exposed to the elevated plus maze (EPM). In the second experiment, these two lines of animals received microinjections of ketanserin in the infralimbic (IL) and prelimbic (PL) cortices and were exposed to either the EPM or a contextual fear conditioning paradigm. The two rat lines exhibited bidirectional effects on anxiety-like behavior in the EPM and opposite responses to ketanserin. Both systemic and intra-IL cortex injections of ketanserin exerted anxiolytic-like effects in CHF rats but anxiogenic-like effects in CLF rats. Microinjections of ketanserin in the PL cortex also exerted anxiolytic-like effects in CHF rats but had no effect in CLF rats. These results suggest that the behavioral effects of 5-HT2A receptor antagonism might depend on genetic variability associated with baseline reactions to threatening situations and 5-HT2A receptor expression in the IL and PL cortices. Highlights -CHF and CLF rats are two bidirectional lines that are based on contextual fear conditioning.-CHF rats have a more "anxious" phenotype than CLF rats in the EPM.-The 5-HT2A receptor antagonist ketanserin had opposite behavioral effects in CHF and CLF rats.-Systemic and IL injections either decreased (CHF) or increased (CLF) anxiety-like behavior.-PL injections either decreased (CHF) anxiety-like behavior or had no effect (CLF).

Panic-like behaviors in Carioca High-and Low-conditioned Freezing rats

Panic disorder involves both recurrent unexpected panic attacks and persistent concern about having additional attacks. Electrical stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) is an animal model of both panic attack and panic disorder, whereas contextual fear conditioning represents a model of anticipatory anxiety. Previous research indicated that anxiety has an inhibitory effect on panic attack-like behavior. However, still unclear is the role that anticipatory anxiety plays in panic disorder-like behaviors. This issue was investigated with two lines of animals selectively bred for high (Carioca High-Freezing) and low (Carioca Low-Freezing) freezing in response to contextual cues associated with footshock. The results suggest that although anticipatory anxiety might exert an inhibitory effect on the expression of panic attack, it might also facilitate the pathogenesis of panic disorder.

Panic-like behaviors in Carioca High-and Low-conditioned Freezing rats

Panic disorder involves both recurrent unexpected panic attacks and persistent concern about having additional attacks. Electrical stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) is an animal model of both panic attack and panic disorder, whereas contextual fear conditioning represents a model of anticipatory anxiety. Previous research indicated that anxiety has an inhibitory effect on panic attack-like behavior. However, still unclear is the role that anticipatory anxiety plays in panic disorder-like behaviors. This issue was investigated with two lines of animals selectively bred for high (Carioca High-Freezing) and low (Carioca Low-Freezing) freezing in response to contextual cues associated with footshock. The results suggest that although anticipatory anxiety might exert an inhibitory effect on the expression of panic attack, it might also facilitate the pathogenesis of panic disorder.(AU)