Keywords: birds

Judge sides with Hawaii to block challenge to mosquito release plan

Candice Cheung,  Courthouse News Service,  2024.
A planned program to save endemic Hawaiian birds from avian malaria by releasing thousands of biopesticide mosquitoes into Maui’s rainforest will go on, despite an attempt by an environmental nonprofit to block the project.First Circuit Court Judge John Tonaki ruled Tuesday ...
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Millions of Mosquitoes Will Rain Down on Hawaii to Save an Iconic Bird

S. Wild,  Scientific American,  2023.
Millions of mosquitoes dropped from helicopters could be the greatest hope for Hawaii’s iconic honeycreepers. At least four species of the brightly colored birds could go extinct within the year if no action is taken to save them. “We’re seriously in a race against time at ...
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East Maui project hopes mosquito v. mosquito mating battle will save endangered birds

K. Cerizo,  MAUINOW,  2022.

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Mendelian nightmares: the germline-restricted chromosome of songbirds

P. Borodin, A. Chen, W. Forstmeier, S. Fouché, L. Malinovskaya, Y. Pei, R. Reifová, F. J. Ruiz-Ruano, S. A. Schlebusch, M. Sotelo-Muñoz, A. Torgasheva, N. Vontzou and A. Suh,  Chromosome Res,  2022.
Germline-restricted chromosomes (GRCs) are accessory chromosomes that occur only in germ cells. They are eliminated from somatic cells through programmed DNA elimination during embryo development. GRCs have been observed in several unrelated animal taxa and show peculiar modes of ...
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A test for meiotic drive in hybrids between Australian and Timor zebra finches

U. Knief, W. Forstmeier, Y. Pei, J. Wolf and B. Kempenaers,  Ecology and Evolution,  2020.
We did not find evidence for meiotic driver loci on specific chromosomes. However, we observed a weak overall transmission bias toward Timor alleles at centromeres in females (transmission probability of Australian alleles of 47%, nominal p = 6 ? 10?5). While this is in line ...
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A Framework for the risk assessment and management of gene drive technology in contained use

van der Vlugt, CJBB, David D.; Lehmann, Kathleen; Leunda, Amaya; Willemarck, Nicolas,  Applied Biosafety,  23:25-31. 2018.
The utilisation of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology has sparked a renewed interest in gene drive mechanisms. These mechanisms of biased inheritance may yield promising applications in the fields of vector control and nature conservation. However, the same properties that will enable ...
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How Genetically Modified Mice Could One Day Save Island Birds

Borel, B,  Audubon,  2017.
The silent black-and-white footage opens on a seemingly tranquil setting: a burrow where an Atlantic Petrel tends to its chick. Then mice begin scurrying in and out of frame. The dark blurs jostle the adult, darting up to the exposed chick and tearing off bloody bites. They’re ...
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Re-Coding for Conservation

Hawkes, A,  Bay Nature Magazine,  2016.
very year, as summer turns to fall, the mouse population on the South Farallon Islands explodes to plague-like densities, numbering 490 mice per acre, among the highest found on any island in the world. The scientists who live and work there describe the assault of the invasive ...
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The dawn of active genetics

Gantz, VMB, E.,  Bioessays,  38:50-63. 2016.
On December 18, 2014, a yellow female fly quietly emerged from her pupal case. What made her unique was that she had only one parent carrying a mutant allele of this classic recessive locus. Then, one generation later, after mating with a wild-type male, all her offspring ...
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A prezygotic transmission distorter acting equally in female and male zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata

Knief, US, H.; Ellegren, H.; Kempenaers, B.; Forstmeier, W.,  Molecular Ecology,  24:3846-3859. 2015.
The two parental alleles at a specific locus are usually inherited with equal probability to the offspring. However, at least three processes can lead to an apparent departure from fair segregation: early viability selection, biased gene conversion and various kinds of ...
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Multiple sex chromosomes in the light of female meiotic drive in amniote vertebrates

Pokorna, MA, M.; Kratochvil, L.,  Chromosome Research,  22:35-44. 2014.
It is notable that the occurrence of multiple sex chromosomes differs significantly between major lineages of amniote vertebrates. In this respect, birds are especially conspicuous, as multiple sex chromosomes have not been observed in this lineage so far. On the other hand, in ...
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Guidance on the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified animals

European Food Safety Authority,  European Food Safety Authority,  2013.
This document describes the six sequential steps for the ERA of GM animals, as indicated in Directive 2001/18/EC: (1) problem formulation including hazard and exposure identification; (2) hazard characterisation; (3) exposure characterisation; (4) risk characterisation; (5) risk ...
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Segregation distortion in chicken and the evolutionary consequences of female meiotic drive in birds

Axelsson, EA, A.; Van, A. P.; Li, L.; Megens, H. J.; Vereijken, A. L. J.; Crooijmans, Rpma; Groenen, M. A. M.; Ellegren, H.; Willerslev, E.; Nielsen, R.,  Heredity,  105:290-298. 2010.
As all four meiotic products give rise to sperm in males, female meiosis result in a single egg in most eukaryotes. Any genetic element with the potential to influence chromosome segregation, so that it is preferentially included in the egg, should therefore gain a transmission ...
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Testosterone has a long-term effect on primary sex ratio of first eggs in pigeons-in search of a mechanism

Goerlich, VCD, C.; Schaafsma, S. M.; Groothuis, T. G. G.,  General and Comparative Endocrinology,  163:184-192. 2009.
Despite accumulating evidence that birds, in which females are the heterogametic sex, are able to manipulate primary offspring sex ratio, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Steroid hormones. which govern female reproduction and are also accumulated by the developing ...
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Broadening the application of evolutionarily based genetic pest management

Gould, F,  Evolution,  62:500-510. 2008.
Insect- and tick-vectored diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and Lyme disease cause human suffering, and current approaches for prevention are not adequate. Invasive plants and animals such as Scotch broom, zebra mussels, and gypsy moths continue to cause environmental ...
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Meiotic drive and sex determination: molecular and cytological mechanisms of sex ratio adjustment in birds

Rutkowska, JB, A. V.,  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences,  363:1675-1686. 2008.
Differences in relative fitness of male and female offspring across ecological and social environments should favour the evolution of sex-determining mechanisms that enable adjustment of brood sex ratio to the context of breeding. Despite the expectation that genetic sex ...
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Bewildering Bs – An impression of the 1st B-chromosome conference

Beukeboom, LW,  Heredity,  73:328-336. 1994.
Ever since their first discovery B chromosomes have attracted attention. Why are they so appealing? The standard chromosomes of an organism are A chromosomes; B chromosomes are extra to this normal complement. In the B chromosome 'bible' (Jones & Rees, 1982) Bs are defined as ...
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