Explore the vast range of titles available.

The scattering process of weakly-bound nuclei at Coulomb barrier energies provides deep insights on the reaction dynamics induced by exotic nuclei. Within this framework, we measured for the first time the scattering process of the short-lived Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) 8B (Sp = 0.1375 MeV) from a 208Pb target at 50 MeV beam energy. The 8B RIB was produced by means of the in-flight facility CRIB (RIKEN, Japan) with an average intensity on target of 10 kHz and a purity about 25%. Elastically scattering ions were detected in the angular range θc.m. = 10°-160° by means of the detector array EXPADES. A preliminary optical model analysis indicates a total reaction cross section of about 1 b, a value, once reduced, 2-3 times larger than those obtained for the reactions induced by the stable weakly-bound projectiles 6,7Li on a 208Pb target in the energy range around the Coulomb barrier.

Comparative FISH-mapping among Y chromosomes of cattle (Bos taurus, 2n = 60, BTA, submetacentric Y chromosome), zebu (Bos indicus, 2n = 60, BIN, acrocentric Y chromosome but with visible small p-arms), river buffalo (Bubalus bubalis, 2n = 50, BBU, acrocentric Y chromosome), sheep (Ovis aries, 2n = 54, OAR, small metacentric Y chromosome) and goat (Capra hircus, 2n = 60, CHI, Y-chromosome as in sheep) was performed to extend the existing cytogenetic maps and improve the understanding of karyotype evolution of these small chromosomes in bovids. C- and R-banding comparison were also performed and both bovine and caprine BAC clones containing the SRY, ZFY, UMN0504, UMN0301, UMN0304 and DYZ10 loci in cattle and DXYS3 and SLC25A6 in goat were hybridized on R-banded chromosomes by FISH. The main results were the following: (a) Y-chromosomes of all species show a typical distal positive C-band which seems to be located at the same region of the typical distal R-band positive; (b) the PAR is located at the telomeres but close to both R-band positive and ZFY in all species; (c) ZFY is located opposite SRYand on different arms of BTA, BIN, OAR/CHI Y chromosomes and distal (but centromeric to ZFY) in BBU-Y; (d) BTA-Y and BIN-Y differ as a result of a centromere transposition or pericentric inversion since they retain the same gene order along their distal chromosome regions and have chromosome arms of different size; (e) BTA-Y and BBU-Y differ in a pericentric inversion with a concomitant loss or gain of heterochromatin; (f) OAR/CHI-Y differs from BBU-Y for a pericentric inversion with a major loss of heterochromatin and from BTA and BIN for a centromere transposition followed by the loss of heterochromatin.

Sixteen carriers of rob(1;29) (one of which was homozygous) from six different breeds (four Italian and two Portuguese), two heterozygous carriers of rob(26;29), three river buffaloes and two sheep were cytogenetically investigated in this study by using banding and FISH-mapping techniques (the latter only in cattle and river buffalo). Single- and dual- colour FISH were used with bovine probes containing both INRA143 (mapping proximally to BTA29) and bovine satellite (SAT) DNA SAT I, SAT III and SAT IV (mapping at the centromeric regions of cattle chromosomes). The combined use of these probes, the comparison of rob(1;29) with the dicentric rob(26;29) and with both river buffalo and sheep chromosomes (biarmed pairs) allowed us to hypothezise that rob(1;29) originated from complex chromosomal rearrangements through at least three sequential events: (a) centric fusion with the formation of a dicentric chromosome; (b) formation of a monocentric chromosome with loss of SAT I from both BTA1 and BTA29, most of SAT IV from BTA29 and, probably, some repeats of SAT III from BTA1; (c) double pericentric inversion or, more probably, a chromosome transposition of a small chromosome segment containing INRA143 from proximal p-arms to proximal q-arm of the translocated chromosome.

Human chromosome specific painting probes were hybridized on sheep (Ovis aries, 2n = 54) chromosomes by FISH. The painting results on sequentially stained RBA-banded preparations demonstrated high degree of conserved regions between human and sheep genomes. A total of 48 human chromosome segments were detected in sheep chromosomes. Comparisons with sheep gene mapping data available and previous Zoo-FISH data obtained in sheep, cattle, and river buffalo were performed.

Few goat genome analysis projects have been developed in the last 10 years. The aim of this review was to compile and update all available cytogenetic mapping data, according to the last goat chromosome nomenclature, as well as human and cattle whole genome sequences. In particular, human regions homologous to most of the FISH-mapped microsatellites were identified in silico. This new goat cytogenetic map made it possible to refine delineation of conserved segments relative to the human and cattle genomic sequence. These improvements did not lead to detection of major new rearrangements within ruminants but confirmed the good conservation of synteny and the numerous intrachromosomal rearrangements observed between goats and humans.

In this contribution we describe the first results obtained for the investigation of the elastic scattering process in the reactions induced by the Radioactive Ion Beams 7Be and 8B on a 208Pb target at Coulomb barrier energies. The experimental data were analyzed within the framework of the optical model in order to extract the total reaction cross section. The comparison with data available in literature for reactions induced on 208Pb by light ions in the mass range A = 6-8 shows that the loosely-bound 8B has the largest reactivity.

Cytogenetic maps are useful tools for several applications, such as the physical anchoring of linkage and RH maps or genome sequence contigs to specific chromosome regions or the analysis of chromosome rearrangements. Recently, a detailed RH map was reported in OAR1. In the present study, we selected 38 markers equally distributed in this RH map for identification of ovine genomic DNA clones within the ovine BAC library CHORI-243 using the virtual sheep genome browser and performed FISH mapping for both comparison of OAR1 and homoeologous chromosomes BBU1q–BBU6 and BTA1–BTA3 and considerably extending the cytogenetic maps of the involved species-specific chromosomes. Comparison of the resulting maps with human-identified homology with HSA2q, HSA3, HSA21 and HSA1q reveals complex chromosome rearrangements differentiating human and bovid chromosomes. In addition, we identified 2 new small human segments from HSA2q and HSA3q conserved in the telomeric regions of OAR1p and homoeologous chromosome regions of BTA3 and BBU6, and OAR1q, respectively. Evaluation of the present OAR1 cytogenetic map and the OAR1 RH map supports previous RH assignments with 2 main exceptions. The 2 loci BMS4011 and CL638002 occupy inverted positions in these 2 maps.

Thirteen male river buffaloes, 119 females with reproductive problems (which had reached reproductive age but had failed to become pregnant in the presence of bulls) and two male co-twins underwent both clinical and cytogenetic investigation. Clinical analyses performed by veterinary practitioners revealed normal body conformation and external genitalia for most females. However, some subjects showed some slight male traits such as large base horn circumference, prominent withers and tight pelvis. Rectal palpation revealed damage to internal sex adducts varying between atrophy of Mullerian ducts to complete lack of internal sex adducts (with closed vagina). All bulls had normal karyotypes at high resolution banding, while 25 animals (23 females and 2 male co-twins) (20.7%) with reproductive problems were found to carry the following sex chromosome abnormalities: X monosomy (2 females); X trisomy (1 female); sex reversal syndrome (2 females); and free-martinism (18 females and 2 males). All female carriers were sterile.