During the last decades, the world’s population has been continuously increasing; consequently, so has the concern about the capability of the current food system for providing sufficient food for the 10 billion expected people in 30 years. Even though this challenge is considered feasible, some changes in the food production and consumption system are needed to achieve sustainability, reduce food loss waste, or contribute to a shift toward global healthier and more sustainable diets. Problems related to these three challenges include degradation of land ecosystems and agriculture practices, greenhouse gases associated with ruminant livestock, overexploitation of marine ecosystems, and the generation and accumulation of residues. In view of these problems, some solutions have been proposed such as the application of agroecology, the use of new alternative protein sources, the implementation of catch shares in fisheries management systems, and the revalorization of food loss waste. Furthermore, the transformation of current unhealthy dietary patterns to healthier ones entails other measures such as education on healthy diets or the development of new food products. This chapter diagnoses of the challenges and problems facing the current food system to provide for a growing world population while also ensuring the sustainability of the environment.
Abstract Using computer simulation we explore the consequences of linkage on the inbreeding load of an equilibrium population, and on the efficiency of purging and the loss of genetic diversity after a reduction in population size. We find that linkage tends to cause increased inbreeding load due to the build up of coupling groups of (partially) recessive deleterious alleles. It also induces associative overdominance at neutral sites but rarely causes increased neutral genetic diversity in equilibrium populations. After a reduction in population size, linkage can cause some delay both for the expression of the inbreeding load and the corresponding purging. However, reasonable predictions can be obtained for the evolution of fitness under inbreeding and purging by using empirical estimates of the inbreeding depression rate. Purging selection against homozygotes for deleterious alleles affects the population’s pedigree. Furthermore, it can slow the loss of genetic diversity compared to that expected from the variance of gametic contributions to the breeding group and even from pedigree inbreeding. Under some conditions, this can lead to a smaller loss of genetic diversity, even below that expected from population size in the absence of selection.
It has frequently been assumed that the persistence of a deleterious mutation (the average number of generations before its loss) and its pervasiveness (the average number of individuals carrying the gene before its loss) are equal. This is true for a particular simple, widely used infinite model, but this agreement is not general. If hs >> 1/(4N(e)), where hs is the selective disadvantage of mutant heterozygotes and N(e) is the effective population number, the contribution of homozygous mutants can be neglected and the simple approximate formula 1/hs gives the mean pervasiveness. But the expected persistence is usually much smaller, 2(log(e)(1/2hs) + 1 - gamma) where gamma = 0.5772. For neutral mutations, the total number of heterozygotes until fixation or loss is often the quantity of interest, and its expected value is 2N(e), with remarkable generality for various population structures. In contrast, the number of generations until fixation or loss, 2(N(e)/N)(1 + log(e)2N), is much smaller than the total number of heterozygotes. In general the number of generations is less than the number of individuals.
Genetic diversity within a population is a critical parameter for conservation biologists to assess. One approach for examining genetic diversity is through the determination of effective population sizes. Animal Conservation recently published a review of genetic approaches for estimating effective population sizes. We felt this review was incomplete both methodologically and conceptually. Here we extend that review to include coalescent-based approaches for estimating effective population sizes. We then discuss different kinds of effective population sizes, including inbreeding, variance and eigenvalue effective sizes.
The molecular structure/property-affinity relationships of dietary polyphenols non-covalently binding to total plasma proteins of type II diabetes (IIDTPP) were investigated by comparing the binding constants obtained from the fluorescence titration method. An additional methoxy group in flavonoids increased their binding affinities for IIDTPP by 1.38 to 15.85 times. The hydroxylation at the 4' position (Ring B) of flavonols and the 5 position (Ring A) of isoflavones weakened the binding affinities; however, hydroxylation at other positions on flavonoids slightly enhanced or little affected the binding affinities for IIDTPP. The glycosylation of flavonoids slightly decreased or little affected the affinities for IIDTPP by less than 1 order of magnitude. The hydrogenation of the C2[double bond, length as m-dash]C3 double bond of flavone, 6-hydroxyflavone, 6-methoxyflavone and myricetin decreased the binding affinities. The galloylation of catechins significantly improved the binding affinities with IIDTPP approximately 10 to 1000 times. The esterification of gallic acid increased its binding affinity. The hydrophobic force played an important role in the binding interaction between polyphenols and IIDTPP.
PartitionTest test suite
Sexual selection (defined as the change in genotypic or phenotypic frequencies of mated versus total population frequencies) and sexual isolation (defined as the deviation from random mating in mated individuals) show different evolutionary consequences and partially confounded causes. Traditionally, the cross-product estimator has been used to quantify sexual selection, whereas a variety of indexes, such as Yule V, Yule Q, YA, joint I, and others have been used to quantify sexual isolation. Because the two types of estimators use different scales, the effects of both processes cannot be monitored simultaneously. We describe three new related statistics that quantify both sexual selection (PSS) and sexual isolation (PSI) effects for every mating pair combination in polymorphic traits, as well as measure their combined effects (PTI = PSI x PSS). The new statistics have the advantage of providing information on every mating pair combination, quantifying the effects of sexual selection and isolation in the same units, and detecting asymmetry in sexual isolation. The ability of the new statistics to ascertain the biological causes of sexual selection and sexual isolation are investigated under different models involving distinct marginal frequencies, mate propensity, and mate choice coefficients. We also studied the use of classical isolation indexes applied on PSI coefficients, instead of on raw data. The use of the classical indexes applied to PSI coefficients considerably reduces the statistical bias of the estimates, revealing the good estimation properties of the new statistics.
