Marta Fonseca Martins

Bio: Marta Fonseca Martins is an academic researcher from Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária. The author has contributed to research in topics: Population & Girolando cattle. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 53 publications receiving 572 citations. Previous affiliations of Marta Fonseca Martins include Universidade Federal de Viçosa.

Single nucleotide variants and InDels identified from whole-genome re-sequencing of Guzerat, Gyr, Girolando and Holstein cattle breeds

Abstract: Whole-genome re-sequencing, alignment and annotation analyses were undertaken for 12 sires representing four important cattle breeds in Brazil: Guzerat (multi-purpose), Gyr, Girolando and Holstein (dairy production). A total of approximately 4.3 billion reads from an Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencer generated for each animal 10.7 to 16.4-fold genome coverage. A total of 27,441,279 single nucleotide variations (SNVs) and 3,828,041 insertions/deletions (InDels) were detected in the samples, of which 2,557,670 SNVs and 883,219 InDels were novel. The submission of these genetic variants to the dbSNP database significantly increased the number of known variants, particularly for the indicine genome. The concordance rate between genotypes obtained using the Bovine HD BeadChip array and the same variants identified by sequencing was about 99.05%. The annotation of variants identified numerous non-synonymous SNVs and frameshift InDels which could affect phenotypic variation. Functional enrichment analysis was performed and revealed that variants in the olfactory transduction pathway was over represented in all four cattle breeds, while the ECM-receptor interaction pathway was over represented in Girolando and Guzerat breeds, the ABC transporters pathway was over represented only in Holstein breed, and the metabolic pathways was over represented only in Gyr breed. The genetic variants discovered here provide a rich resource to help identify potential genomic markers and their associated molecular mechanisms that impact economically important traits for Gyr, Girolando, Guzerat and Holstein breeding programs.

Honey bee colonies act as reservoirs for two Spiroplasma facultative symbionts and incur complex, multiyear infection dynamics

Abstract: Two species of Spiroplasma (Mollicutes) bacteria were isolated from and described as pathogens of the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, ~30 years ago but recent information on them is lacking despite global concern to understand bee population declines. Here we provide a comprehensive survey for the prevalence of these two Spiroplasma species in current populations of honey bees using improved molecular diagnostic techniques to assay multiyear colony samples from North America (U.S.A.) and South America (Brazil). Significant annual and seasonal fluctuations of Spiroplasma apis and Spiroplasma melliferum prevalence in colonies from the U.S.A. (n = 616) and Brazil (n = 139) occurred during surveys from 2011 through 2013. Overall, 33% of U.S.A. colonies and 54% of Brazil colonies were infected by Spiroplasma spp., where S. melliferum predominated over S. apis in both countries (25% vs. 14% and 44% vs. 38% frequency, respectively). Colonies were co-infected by both species more frequently than expected in both countries and at a much higher rate in Brazil (52%) compared to the U.S.A. (16.5%). U.S.A. samples showed that both species were prevalent not only during spring, as expected from prior research, but also during other seasons. These findings demonstrate that the model of honey bee spiroplasmas as springtime-restricted pathogens needs to be broadened and their role as occasional pathogens considered in current contexts.

Genetic parameters of milk production and reproduction traits of Girolando cattle in Brazil

Abstract: The objective of this study was to estimate the heritability and genetic, phenotypic, and environmental correlations between 305-day milk yield (305MY), age at first calving (AFC), calving interval...

Human biochemical genetics

Abstract: So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

The Behavioral Response to Personalized Genetic Information: Will Genetic Risk Profiles Motivate Individuals and Families to Choose More Healthful Behaviors?

Abstract: This report describes the use of information emerging from genetic discovery to motivate risk-reducing health behaviors. Most research to date has evaluated the effects of information related to rare genetic variants on screening behaviors, in which genetic risk feedback has been associated consistently with improved screening adherence. The limited research with common genetic variants suggests that genetic information, when based on single-gene variants with low-risk probabilities, has little impact on behavior. The effect on behavioral outcomes of more realistic testing scenarios in which genetic risk is based on numerous genetic variants is largely unexplored. Little attention has been directed to matching genetic information to the literacy levels of target audiences. Another promising area for research is consideration of using genetic information to identify risk shared within kinship networks and to expand the influence of behavior change beyond the individual.

Survey of conversational agents in health

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed the world and the relationships among humans as the learning capabilities of machines have allowed for a new means of communication between humans and machines. In the field of health, there is much interest in new technologies that help to improve and automate services in hospitals. This article aims to explore the literature related to conversational agents applied to health care, searching for definitions, patterns, methods, architectures, and data types. Furthermore, this work identifies an agent application taxonomy, current challenges, and research gaps. In this work, we use a systematic literature review approach. We guide and refine this study and the research questions by applying Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Context (PICOC) criteria. The present study investigated approximately 4145 articles involving conversational agents in health published over the last ten years. In this context, we finally selected 40 articles based on their approaches and objectives as related to our main subject. As a result, we developed a taxonomy, identified the main challenges in the field, and defined the main types of dialog and contexts related to conversational agents in health. These results contributed to discussions regarding conversational health agents, and highlighted some research gaps for future study.