Molecular and Quantitative Animal Genetics

Hasan Khatib

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118677377
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Genetics & Genomics
• Index: Biological Sciences

Animal genetics is a foundational discipline in the fields of animal science, animal breeding, and veterinary sciences.While genetics underpins the healthy development and breedingof all living organisms, this is especially true in domestic animals, specifically with respect to breeding for key traits.

Molecular and Quantitative Animal Genetics is a new textbook that takes an innovative approach, looking at both quantitative and molecular breeding approaches. The bookprovides a comprehensive introduction to genetic principles and their applications in animal breeding. This text provides a useful overview for those new to the field of animal genetics and breeding, covering a diverse array of topics ranging from population and quantitative genetics to epigenetics and biotechnology. Molecular and Quantitative Animal Genetics will be an important and invaluable educational resource for undergraduate and graduate students and animal agriculture professionals.

Divided into six sections pairing fundamental principles with useful applications, the book's comprehensive coverage will make it an ideal fit for students studying animal breeding and genetics at any level.

1
Decoding and Encoding the “DNA” of Teaching and Learning in College Classrooms

Michel A. Wattiaux

Department of Animal Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, WI, USA

Introduction

The success of the human species on Earth has derived in part from its ability to understand, predict, manipulate, govern, and preserve biological lifecycles from the microscopic to the planetary scale. Since the rediscovery of Mendel's work at the beginning of the twentieth century, the mechanisms of inheritance and nature versus nurture have been enduring themes for geneticists. What a living organism (plant, animal, or microbe) exhibits, its recorded performances, and its observed behaviors, depends in part upon the inherited genes, the environment, and their interactions. At the molecular level, the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) encodes the genetic instructions. The DNA, organized in chromosomes, is found in the nucleus of cells that make up tissues and organs, which in turn contribute to the proper functions of the organism as a member of a species in constant dynamic equilibrium with other components of an ecosystem. Irrespective of the unique contribution of molecular biology, cellular and organismal physiology, ecology, and evolution to the field of biology as a whole, DNA is the molecule that fundamentally connects these disciplines to each other. Is there such a thing as the “DNA” of teaching and learning? What are the fundamental structures and processes that underpin the education of human beings? Could one look at kindergarten, primary, secondary, and higher education, the household, the workplace, the places of worship, the public squares, and public libraries as places of teaching and learning that form a continuum made of distinct but interacting parts in one's life, and the life of human communities? Could we think of these parts as forming cultural heritages and educational traditions that humans pass on from one generation to the next? If so, what are the roles of institutions of higher education and what are their functions? What educational purpose do they serve when four years on a university campus is approximately 5% of one's lifespan (Figure 1.1)? Is a scientific fact to critical thinking what DNA is to a gene? Could we imagine teaching and learning as the two complementary strands of a DNA molecule where the information that has been acquired by previous generations is stored and preserved, but where mechanisms for change during duplication are essential to allow for adaptation to changing conditions?

Figure 1.1 Educational stages across the lifespan of a citizen of the United States with an average life expectancy at birth of 78 years.

In this chapter we have attempted to address what students do when they learn and what teachers do when they teach at a fundamental level. Our goal was to summarize the current literature only to the extent necessary to challenge long-held views about the role of the instructor, the role of the student, and the traditional instructional design of a college classroom. We hope that by analyzing definitions, exploring theories of learning, and reviewing teaching-related institutional reforms, we have created a context and laid the foundation for a deeper understanding of an instructor's role as the designer of a learning environment. The overarching aim is greater fulfillment and reward for both the instructor and the students as they engage in a college classroom intended to equip the latter for a successful career in the twenty-first century.

Teaching and Learning: Definitions

Teaching and learning are multifaceted and closely related concepts as revealed in the subtleties of their multiple definitions (Table 1.1 and Table 1.2). A close look at these definitions shows the intricacies of the relationships between teaching and learning. For example, although teaching – the act, practice, or profession of a teacher – is to cause to know, to impart knowledge or skills; to teach is also defined as to accustom to some action or attitude (item 1c, Table 1.1) or to guide a study (item 2, in Table 1.1). Not surprisingly, knowledgeable individuals are not the only sources of teaching. One's own experience can be a “teacher” (item 4b, Table 1.1). Similarly, experience may cause learning to occur. To learn – to gain knowledge, understanding of, or skill in – can be completed by the self, by instruction or by experience as illustrated in Table 1.2 items 5a, 5b, and 5c, respectively. The verbs describing teaching and learning are important because they reflect and reveal aspects of the two contrasting, yet complementary, learning theories that will be discussed next: behaviorism and constructivism. Although the former implies a cause and effect relationship between teaching and learning, the latter describes the relationship in broader associative terms. For example item 5c (Table 1.2) and item 4b (Table 1.1) can be combined to reflect a constructivist approach to learning that emphasizes mental processes: “First year college is a learning experience that taught us our limitations.”

Table 1.1 Definitions¹ of the verb to teach and the noun teaching.

Definitions of “to teach”
1a	To cause to know something <taught them a trade>
1b	To cause to know how <is teaching me to drive>
1c	To accustom to some action or attitude <teach students to think for themselves>
1d	To cause to know the disagreeable consequences of some action <I'll teach you to come home late>
2	To guide the studies of
3	To impart the knowledge of <teach algebra>
4a	To instruct by precept, example, or experience
4b	To make known and accepted <experience teaches us our limitations>
5	To conduct instruction regularly in <teach school>
Definitions of “teaching”
6	Teaching: the act, practice, or profession of a teacher
7	Teaching: something taught (the ideas and beliefs that are taught by a person); especially doctrine <the teachings of Confucius>

¹Source: Merriam-Websters Dictionary www.merriam-webster.com/.

Table 1.2 Definitions¹ of the v...