Genetic variation is necessary factor for continued breeding and increasing genetic gain from selection in crop plants. To evaluate genetic variation and genetic gain from selection in bread wheat, 45 genotypes consisting of 9 cultivars and their 36 crosses were grown in a randomized complete block design with three replications in research farm of Isfahan University of Technology. The phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation for grain yield (24.6% and 21.7%, respectively), grain number per main spike (19.6% and 19%), grain weight per spike (19.6% and 19.6%) and biological yield (18.6% and 16.5%) indicated that there is a great degree of variation for these traits in this study. The highest narrow sense heritabilities were belonged to grain number per spike (79%), spike length (62%), 1000 grains weight (58%) and spikeletes per spike (57%) . Due to magnitude of heritability of grain yield (18%), its genetic gain (9.12%) was relatively low compared with other traits. The genetic gain for grain number per spike (32.3%), 1000 grain weight (14.3%), and grain weight per spike (12.9%) was larger than other evaluated traits. In general, selection of superior genotypes based on grain number per spike and thousand grains weight could improve grain yield in breeding programs of wheat.

In this paper, the gain in LD-CELP speech coding algorithm is predicted using three neural models, that are equipped by genetic and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms to optimize the structure and parameters of neural networks. Elman, multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and fuzzy ARTMAP are the candidate neural models. The optimized number of nodes in the first and second hidden layers of Elman and MLP and also the initial weights and biases of these nets are determined by genetic algorithm (GA) and PSO. In the fuzzy ARTMAP, the choice parameter, a, learning rate, b, and vigilance parameter, r, are selected by GA and PSO, as well. In this way, the performance of GA and PSO are compared when using different neural architectures in this application. Empirical results show that when gain is predicted by Elman and MLP neural networks with GA/PSOoptimized parameters, the segmental signal to noise ratio (SNRseg) and mean opinion score (MOS) are improved as compared to traditional implementation based on ITU-T G.728 recommendation. On the other hand, fuzzy ARTMAP-based gain predictor reduces the computational complexity noticeably, with no significant degradations in SNRseg and MOS.

Introduction1 Kermani sheep is one of the native dual purpose breeds that adapted with Kerman province’ s climate conditions. Body weight traits for sheep meat producers are very important, therefore precise evaluation of genetic factors for these traits have always been concern of breeders. Regarding to importance of meat production in economic benefit of sheep farming, this research was done with goal of genetic parameters estimation for daily gain and Kleiber ratios in Kermani sheep. Materials and Methods This research was done by using pedigree information form 10988 Kermani sheep between 1983 to 2010 that was collected by Kermani sheep breeding station located in Shahr-e-Babak city of Kerman province, for genetic analysis of growth traits. Studied traits were average daily gain from birth to form weaning (ADG1), form weaning to 6 months (ADG2), form 6 months to 9 months (ADG3), form 9 months to 1 yearling (ADG4) and Kleiber ratios corresponding to the respective daily weight gain (KR1, KR2, KR3 and KR4). For data preparation and edition, pedigree analysis and genetic analysis of studied traits Excel, Fox Pro, CFC and Wombat Softwares were used respectively. Test of significance for the fixed effects on studied traits was done by GLM procedure of SAS 9. 2 Software and significant level of p<0. 05 was considered for fitting fixed effects in final model. Combined effect of HYS (23 herds), lamb sex and dam age at lambing was significant for all of studied traits. Genetic analysis of traits was performed of restricted maximum likelihood method by using of Wombat and most appropriate model according to Akaike’ s information criterion was selected. Results and Discussion In this research the records number of growth traits decreased by age due to culling of some of lambs or not registering of records in higher ages. The average daily gain of pre-weaning was calculated 231. 77 gr and this trait for post-weaning periods had down trend that was complied with reported results in similar studies. Average of ADG1 in this research rather than reported amounts by other researches was more that represented high capacity of growth in Kermani lambs. The Average of ADG2, ADG3, ADG4, KR1, KR2, KR3 and KR4 were estimated 109. 98, 40. 78, 38. 06, 19. 86, 13. 13, 7. 63 and 3. 30 gr respectively. The various climate conditions like raining content and environment temperature affects the quality and quantity of forage that resulted in significant changes at available nutrients amount of animal and supply of requirements and consequence of it the daily gain of lambs at different ages. Male lambs in all of traits compare with female lambs were more that showed that effect of sex on Kermani sheep lambs. The average of single lambs was more than twin lambs. The effect of dam age at lambing was significant on all of studied traits. The direct heritability for ADG1, ADG2, ADG3, ADG4, KR1, KR2, KR3 and KR4 were calculated 0. 14, 0. 15, 0. 16, 0. 16, 0. 17, 0. 19, 0. 20 and 0. 23 respectively. Although direct heritability of ADG1 was low, but by increasing of age the amount of direct heritability for traits increased that may be caused to the reducing effect of maternal effect on studied traits with increasing age. The total heritability for ADG1, ADG2, ADG3, ADG4, KR1, KR2, KR3 and KR4 were estimated 0. 19, 0. 20, 0. 19, 0. 16, 0. 21, 0. 19, 0. 23 and 0. 23 respectively. The covariance for ADG3 was estimated negative that shows negative presence of maternal genetic effects in this traits heritability and selection response. The genetic correlations between ADG1-KR1, ADG2-KR2, ADG3-KR3 and ADG4-KR4 were estimated 0. 57, 0. 74, 0. 68 and 0. 54 respectively. The phenotypic correlation between ADG1-KR1, ADG2-KR2, ADG3-KR3 and ADG4-KR4 were 0. 84, 0. 89, 0. 88 and 0. 98 respectively. It seems that selection for Kleiber ratio in each period resulted in increasing daily gain at that period too. Therefore, by selection according to Kleiber ratio, the average of food efficiency will increase. Between environmental correlation of studied traits with direct correlation of them showed that the difference among them was low in most of cases. Thus, regarding to available information it seems that the univariate model was more appropriate in genetic evaluation of studied traits. Conclusion The results of this research showed that selection according to Kleiber ratio in Kermani sheep can increase the efficiency of feed intake. More than this, the Kleiber ratio has this advantage that at calculating, starter and finisher weights of period which estimation of them are simple.

Introduction1 World population will be increased up to 9 billion and food demand up to 50 percent by 2050. This exponential increase in population, without an associated increase in arable land, in recent years, significantly threaten crop production. Therefore, engineering crop plants in order to achieve greater yields has been a major focus of plant biologists and breeders with a view to ensuring food availability for an increasing world population under changing environmental conditions. Plant performance is strongly associated with, and dependent on, plant development and growth. Several developmental features of plants, such as overall plant architecture, leaf features and vasculature architecture, are major traits that determine the overall performance of crop plants. The importance of plant developmental features in increasing crop yield potential became evident during the ‘ green revolution’ , when an unprecedented increase in yield was achieved by breeding for semi-dwarf varieties of rice and wheat. Furthermore, due to rapid global environmental changes, restricted land and water resources, increasing food production particularly for wheat should be achieved mainly by increased crop yield (Koning & van Ittersum, 2009). Yield could be increased by genetic or agronomic measures and understanding the share of each component is of great importance for designing future cropping systems. However, these issues are not fully studied and quantified. Therefore, in this research yield trend of irrigated wheat at national level is analyzed for 1971-2011 period and contribution of cultivar improvement and agronomic management to yield increment have been estimated. Materials and Methods Trends of total production, cultivated area and yield of irrigated wheat were analyzed for the country for 40 years (1971-2011) using linear regression with slope as annual increment rate of each variable. Weather-adjusted yield trend was also estimated based on residuals of regression as described by Nassiri Mahallati & Koocheki (2014). Share of cultivated area and yield in total production was calculated by using component analysis. Annual changes in yield of irrigated wheat (dY, kg. ha-1 yr-1 i. e. the slope of yield trend model) described by Eq. (1): dY = dG + dN + dP + dO (1) Where dG, dN, dP and dO (all in kg. ha-1 yr-1) are annual yield increment due to genetic, N-fertilizers, P-fertilizers and Other agronomic factors. Contribution of genetic factors (dG) was estimated based on the cultivar improvement index (Silvey, 1981). Share of chemical fertilizers (dN and dP) in remaining yield increase (dY-dG) was calculated for each year during the study period. Finally, contribution of other agronomic measures (dO) to yield was estimated by subtracting right hand terms of Eq. (1) from dY. Results and Discussion Wheat production and yield was increased by 3. 2 and 1. 4 times over the studied period, respectively. However, cultivated area after a sharp increase at 2. 8% per year until 2000 was decreased in the last decade by 1% per year. Annual weather variation showed significant effect on irrigated wheat yield so that averaged over the 40 years, estimated rate of yield increment was 24% lower than weather adjusted yield. During the 4 decades mean contribution of cultivated area and yield on total wheat production were 44 and 56%, respectively and it was estimated that share of yield will be increased up to 70% in the present decade. Genetic yield potential of irrigated wheat cultivars has increased at 57 kg. ha-1 yr-1 (1. 18% per year) for the period 1968-2011. During the studied period wheat cultivar improvement contributed to annual rate of yield increment by 34. 8% while in the same period average contribution of N and P fertilizers were estimated as 25. 4 and 8. 8%, respectively leaving 31% for the other agronomic measures.

The purpose of this study was investigated the genetic gain, increase of average inbreeding and accuracy of prediction using simulated data under different mating designs. Two level of heritability (0. 1 and 0. 5) and five maing designs including random mating (rnd), mating based on minimum inbreeding (minf), mating based on maximum inbreeding (maxf), positive assortative mating design based on phenotype (phen) and positive assortative mating design based on estimated breeding value (ebv) were considered. The genetic gain after ten generation in rnd, minf, maxf, phen and ebv mating designs for heritability 0. 1 were 0. 836, 0. 747, 0. 952, 0. 877 and 1. 023 units, respectively, and for heritability 0. 3 were 2. 979, 2. 997, 3. 016, 3. 303 and 3. 595 units, respectively. After ten generation increase of average inbreeding for heritability 0. 1 was 0. 084 in rnd, 0. 038 in minf, 0. 353 in maxf, 0. 079 in phen and 0. 215 in ebv, and for heritability 0. 3 was 0. 057 in rnd, 0. 026 in minf, 0. 356 in maxf, 0. 092 in phen and 0. 177 in ebv, respectively. The results shoewd that the genetic gain in minf design was greater than others mating designs per 1% increase of inbreeding, and minf design was better than other mating designs.

This study was done in order to estimate genetic parameters of growth and feed efficiency traits in Japanese quail. The data set consisted of 7762 records for feed efficiency traits and 12113 records for body weight gain traits were collected at Research Center of Special Domestic Animals, University of Zabol. The following traits including body weight gain from 20 to 25, 25-30, 30-35, 35-40, 40-45 and from 0 to 45 days of age, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and residual feed intake from 20 to 45 days of age were evaluated. The genetic parameters were estimated through single and bivariate animal models via Gibbs sampling method. Heritability estimates for body weight gain varied from 0. 02 to 0. 23 and for feed intake, feed conversion ratio, residual feed intake was in ranges of 0. 04 to 0. 11. Genetic correlations estimates between body weight gain and feed conversion ratio 20-25, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio 25-30, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio 30-35, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio 35-40, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio 40-45 were-0. 56,-0. 49,-0. 57,-0. 70 and 0. 25 respectively. Considering estimated genetic correlations of this study, we recommend that selection for body weight gain and decrease feed efficiency have potential to improve feed efficiency traits in Japanese quail. It is expected that by selecting for these traits the costs of breeding programs such as feeding and phenotyping would be reduced.

The effect of ordinary and restricted selection indices on body weight at different ages changes in birth weight of Iranian Moghani sheep was studied. Traits in the aggregate genotype were birth weight (BW), body weights at 3 (BW3) and 12 months of age (BW12). Two ordinary selection indices (I1 and I2) and two restricted selection indices (R1 and R2) were constructed. BW and BW3 were included in I1 and R1 and BW, BW3 and BW6 were included in I2 and R2. The ranges of expected genetic gains in I1 and I2 for BW, BW3 and BW12 per generation were 0.080 to 0.068, 0.210 to 0.177 and 0.546 to 0.662 kg, respectively. Increasing BW may cause a disorder in the future of breeding goal due to dystocia. Restricted selection indices were constructed to increase BW3 and BW12 while keeping genetic gain in BW to zero. Under selection by indices of R1 and R2 the amount of genetic gain in BW was zero, while considerable genetic gains were obtained for BW3 (0.094 to 0.062) and BW12 (0.39 to 0.60). Ordinary and restricted selection indices were then evaluated in a simulated population. Predicted genetic gains for BW, BW3 and BW12 from ordinary and restricted selection indices were similar to the predicted genetic gains. For both restricted selection in-dices (R1 and R2) predicted genetic gains for BW3 and BW12 in the simulated population increased over the generations whereas BW decreased slightly over the generations.

In order to study the effect of incomplete sire's pedigree on genetic trend (bBv,y) and gain (R)of quantitative trait, two population were simulated with the heritability 0.15 and 0.30. For eachpopulation, information resulted from ten years of selection were saved in different files. Ingenerated data files, the sire numbers were eliminated from pedigree file with 0, 10, 20, …, 100percentage by two randomly and sequentially methods. The data files were analyzed usinganimal model. In two populations and the sire numbers deletion method, genetic trend weresignificantly reduced with increasing the sire number deletion proportions. Reduction ofestimated genetic trends in no sire numbers data file rather than complete pedigree's andsimulated base population, were 86.18% and 89.1% in population 1 and 88.42% and 90.16% inpopulation 2 respectively. Reduction of bBv,y and R in lower deletion proportions were higherthan the later one in random deletion method while were uniformly in the sequential deletionmethod. Annually genetic gains were significantly decreased based on growing sire missingproportions. Then, it is necessary for breeders to increase accuracy of sire numbers recording inbreeding flocks.

This study was conducted for genetic analysis of Markhoz goats for autosomal and X chromosomes for average daily gain traits from birth to yearling. The data set contained 3837 average daily gain from birth to weaning (ADG1), 3467 average daily gain from weaning to 6-month (ADG2), 3133 average daily gain from 6-month to 9-month (ADG3) and 2726 average daily gain from 9-month to 12-month (ADG4) collected during 1992-2014 in Markhoz Goat Breeding Center of Sanandaj. Fixed effects affecting the studied traits were determined using Proc GLM of the SAS 8. 2 software and variance components and genetic parameters were estimated by Average Information algorithm of Restricted Maximum Likelihood (AI-REML) using Wombat software. The most appropriate model for each trait was determined by Akaike’ s Information Criterion (AIC) test. Direct autosomal heritability estimates for ADG1, ADG2, ADG3 and ADG4 were 0. 14± 0. 03, 0. 00± 0. 02, 0. 14± 0. 04 and 0. 06± 0. 03, respectively. X-linked direct heritability estimates for these traits were negligible values of 0. 00± 0. 02, 0. 08± 0. 02, 0. 06± 0. 02 and 0. 04± 0. 02, respectively. Maternal heritability for ADG1 and ADG3 were 0. 06± 0. 02 and 0. 04± 0. 03, respectively. Maternal permanent environmental variance for ADG3 and ADG4 were 0. 03± 0. 02. The low estimations of direct heritabilities for autosomal and sexual chromosomes were obtained in the current study, therefore direct selection for these traits would be generate a relatively slow genetic progress.