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  • Genetic Diversity of Hair Colour in Horses
    40-45
    Views:
    76

    The main aim of this study was to analyze sources of variability for coat colour expressed as a quantitative trait as well as to determine non genetic factors influencing horse colour variation and shades. Traditional Hungarian horse breeds such as Lipizzan (grey), Gidran (chestnut), Shagya Arabian and Arabian Pure Bred (grey) and Nonius (bay and black) horses were involved in the current study. We report results using direct measurements of horse coat colour using objective colorimetric dimensions and a spectrophotometer for determining hair melanin. Correlation analysis indicated that the single biological component that correlated best with the total melanin content of horse hair is the L* value (r=-0.858, p<0.0001). Subjective colour classes and coat colour variables L* and a* were obviously related, with R2 values of 0.88 and 0.46 respectively, with a lower R2 for b* of 0.22 (all p<0.001).

  • The effect of daytime and nighttime temperature on the cover colour of fruits in an apple gene bank
    45-53
    Views:
    97

    Skin colour of fruits is an important fruit quality parameter. Fruit growers know the phenomenon that the apple colouration is very good in one year while in other years the green and red apples can be differentiated only on the basis of the morphological characteristics of the fruits. There are great differences in values of cover colour between years.
    In the first step, the relationships between day and night temperature, the difference between day and night temperature and fruit skin colour should be determined. In this study, the authors investigate and quantify this relationship.

  • The effect of sunburn damage on the fruit quality parameters of apple (Malus domestica cv. Idared)
    55-64
    Views:
    96

    In the present study the authors investigated the effect of sunburn injury on fruit quality parameters (cover colour, depth of tissue damage, fruit flesh firmness, dry matter content) of apple.
    The symptoms of sunburn injury appeared as concentric rings, differing in colour from each other and the cover colour. This can be connected with the ratio of the injury. The authors observed the following colours on the fruit surface (from the epicentre of spots on the surface of the fruit) dark brown (strongly damaged), light brown (moderately damaged), pale red transition (weakly damaged), red surface cover colour (not damaged).
    Sunburn of apple fruits is a surface injury caused by solar radiation, heat and low relative humidity. In the initial phase, a light corky layer, golden or bronze discolouration and injuries of the epidermal tissue appear on the surface exposed to radiation. Thus, it detracts from the fruit’s appearance, but in most of the cases it would not cause serious damages in the epidermal tissue. The depth of tissue damage is not considerable, its values are between 1.5-2.0 mm in general. It is commonly known, that tissue structure of the apple fruit is not homogeneous. Accordingly, the degree of injury shows some differences under the different parts of the fruit surface.
    On the basis of the flesh firmness studies, it can be stated that the flesh firmness of the damaged parts increases due to the sunburn effect. This is due to the fact that the damaged plant cells die, the water content of the tissue decreases and it hardens. However, due to this reduction in the water content the dry matter content will increase.

  • Morpometric study of Hungarian honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies
    59-63
    Views:
    236

    The honey bees are essential for the pollination of agricultural plants. The Pannonian honey bee, Apis mellifera pannonica, is native to Hungary, only these subspecies are being bread in our country. The parameters have been separated the pannon and italian honey bee subspecies, the colour of tergit, the cubital index and proboscis length. The morphometric analisys is of special importance because this, on the one hand, shows correlation with honey bee production and on the other hand, the pure morphometric charactersitics is the basis of any potential honey bee export. Mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites are the common methods to define genetic diversity and the separation of subspecies.

  • Determining the antioxidant compounds of beer
    5-10
    Views:
    296

    The increasing consumption of beer indicates the necessity of the thorough analysis of its composition. In this study, the total phenolic content, flavonoid content and colour intensity of 24 beer samples have been determined. The samples contained pale barley, dark barley, pale wheat and dark wheat beers. The aim of the study was to determine the amount of the antioxidant compounds in beer, as well as to find correlation between different beer types and the above mentioned parameters.

    Dark barley samples contained phenolic compounds in the highest concentrations, and it can also be concluded that dark beers contain phenolic compounds and flavonoids in higher concentrations than pale beers in the case of barley and wheat samples.

    According to the performed statistical analysis, these beer types cannot be differentiated based on the analysed parameters. The highest percentage of correctly classified samples could be observed in case of dark barley samples, but this value has only been 75%, and the total result of correctly classified cases was only 41.7%. The analysis of more samples and parameters is required to carry out a successful differentiation.

  • Antioxidant activity and total flavonoid content of honeys
    25-28
    Views:
    108

    The influence of honey on human health has been known since ancient times. Different components, like vitamins, amino-acids, enzymes, and the so called antioxidant activity of the honey play role in this effect, and also in the excellent quality. The aim of present study was to determine the total antioxidant activity and the flavonoid content of some honey samples. These two parameters are widely studied, and a lot of data can be used to compare and analyse. On the basis of them we can state that our results are quite similar than those we can find in literature. Characteristic feature of the examined honey samples is, that the antioxidant activity increased with the darkening of the colour. The lowest antioxidant activity and flavonoid content was produced by the acacia honeys with greenish shade of colour. The highest values was found in the very dark honeys (forest, sage, golden rod). The only exception was the coriander honey, where despite of its lighter colour, very high antioxidant activity was
    measured. 

  • Mitochondrial DNA-based diversity study of Hungarian brown hares (Lepus europaeus Pallas 1778)
    23-29
    Views:
    131

    The brown hare being an important game species which is widespread across the European continent has been in focus of many population genetic studies. However only a few comprising researches can be found on the diversity of Central-European populations.

    The aim of our large scale long term ongoing study is to fill this gap of information on the species by describing the genetic history and structure of the brown hare populations of the area using both mitochondrial DNA markers and genomic skin and hair colour regulating genes.

    This article gives forth a part of our results concerning the mitochondrial DNA diversity of Hungarian brown hares based on amplification of a 512 bp long D-loop sequence. N=39 tissue or hair samples have been collected from 15 sampling sites on the Hungarian Great Plain. We have described a high level of haplotype diversity (Hd=0.879±0.044) based on a 410 bp alignment of our sequences. We have found 17 haplotypes within our sample set with the nucleotid diversity of π=0.01167±0.0022. Our ongoing research shows high genetic diversity for the brown hare in the studied region and a second alignment with 156 sequences downloaded from GenBank indicates a geographic pattern of haplotypes among the studied populations though these results need confirmation by our further analyses.

  • Comparing skull formation of the Hungarian (Hortobágy) Zackel sheep breed by geometrics morphometrics
    29-33
    Views:
    134

    This work seeks to explore the morphological changes of the Hungarian (Hortobágy) Zackel sheep's skull, which occurred in the past 50–70 years. In this study, we compared individuals skull forms by geometric morphometric methods. The origin of the breed is not known, we do not know when entering the Carpathian Basin. Therefore, the comparison involved the only known early archaeological findings. We have shown that there is no difference between each period colour variations, but over time change has occurred in the skull formation of the breed.

  • Lack of polymorphism of the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene among four different brown hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas 1778) populations
    81-85
    Views:
    122

    The brown hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas 1778) is a common palearctic and a popular game species therefore it has been an obvious subject for population genetic studies since the second part of the 20th century. Among the several mitochondrial DNA studies some have been carried out concerning nuclear genes as well. The agouti signaling protein gene (ASIP) is involved in regulating the synthesis of eumelanin and pheomelanin in melanocytes of mammals. Though many studies focused on it in relation with several mammalian species, minimal information is available on this topic concerning the brown hare.

    Here we present a short communication concerning the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene in four different country’s L. europaeus populations, namely Lithuania, Hungary, Serbia and Georgia. N=45 tissue samples have been investigated from overall 17 sampling sites of the different countries. There has not been found any polymorphism among the sequences. In an alignment with other Leporid species’ partial ASIP sequences downloaded from ENA we have found that based on a 178 base pairs long DNA sequence the haplotype of our samples contains three other Lepus species as well. This is concordant with the findings of a previous study focusing predominantly on the European rabbit (Orycto lagus cuniculus Linnaeus 1758) and the several mutations of its ASIP gene.

  • The methodology of the Hooded Crow’s (Corvus cornix L.) colour ringing and the previous results
    43-48
    Views:
    148

    The Hooded Crow (CorvuscornixL.) have moved in several Hungarian cities in the last few decades. It is breeding in Debrecen since 1959, and nowdays it’s presence can be detected at all points of the city, it is an permanent breeding species of the bird fauna. Our knowledge about the nature of urban races, including motion patterns, area fidelity is sufficiently incomplete. The aim of our research is to answer these questions by using our colour-ring program. In this study we present in details the methodology of Hooded Crow’s colour-ring program in urban area, and we also report our previous
    achievements.