Helping Others Facilitates Well-Being for Indigenous Peoples Living With HIV/AIDS in Canada.

Research has found that helping others facilitates well-being for Indigenous peoples living with HIV and AIDS, but limited research exists that investigates the mechanism(s) underlying this relationship. Indigenous perspectives posit that helping others facilitates well-being through the development of an individual's spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental aspects (four aspects). Similarly, self-determination theory posits that helping others facilitates well-being by satisfying basic psychological needs. In the present study, we examined if helping others facilitates well-being through the fulfillment of the spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental aspects among Indigenous peoples living with HIV and AIDS. We used a convergent parallel mixed methods design, coupled with a community-engaged approach grounded in the United Nations Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS principles and Indigenous and decolonizing research methodologies. Survey (n = 117) and interview data (n = 9) collected by an Indigenous-led HIV/AIDS organization in Canada were employed to examine the relationship between helping, the four aspects, and well-being. Participants were primarily First Nations leaders and mentors who live with HIV/AIDS, with some Métis and Inuit. A parallel multiple mediation model and reflexive thematic analysis were used to analyze the relationship between helping, the four aspects, and well-being. Mixed-methods findings support the idea that helping others promotes well-being by fulfilling the emotional and mental aspects. Qualitative findings demonstrated this relationship for all four aspects. This research may facilitate the development of programs to support Indigenous peoples living with HIV/AIDS well-being and contribute to the literature on integrating Indigenous perspectives and methodologies within psychological research.

European mink-polecat hybridization events: hazards from natural process?

Determining the significance of hybridization events raises essential issues both in conservation and in evolutionary biology. Here, we report a genetic investigation of sympatric polecat and endangered European mink populations. Although the two species were morphologically very similar, the European mink and the polecat were easily discriminated from allozymes and microsatellites and showed a high level of private alleles (effective number of alleles: mink=1.45 and polecat=3.09). Nevertheless, the allozymic polymorphism remained lower in the European mink (4 loci, 10.5%) than in polecat (9 loci, 23.7%). Similarly, from microsatellite data, the polymorphism only reached 36% at 0.99 in the European mink; whereas in the polecat, the polymorphism reached 82% at 0.99. Natural hybridization events between two native species were detected. Because of the low fertility of hybrids, interbreeding could be regarded as producing "hybrid sink" that leads to a progressive assimilation of mink by polecat. Nonetheless, pure mink populations inhabited streams in western France, and hybridization events were only detected in areas where mink were rare and now presumed disappeared. Rather than revealing the poor efficiency of the specific recognition system, our results suggest that hybridization is associated with the scarcity of mating partners.

Structure and level of genetic diversity in various bean types evidenced with microsatellite markers isolated from a genomic enriched library.

We have constructed a common bean genomic library enriched for microsatellite motifs (ATA), (CA), (CAC) and (GA). After screening, 60% of the clones selected from the library enriched for the (ATA) repeat contained microsatellites versus 21% of the clones from the library enriched for (GA) (CA) and (CAC) repeats. Fifteen primer pairs have been developed allowing for the amplification of SSR loci. We have evaluated the genetic diversity of these loci between 45 different bean lines belonging to nine various quality types. A total of 81 alleles were detected at the 15 microsatellite loci with an average of 5.3 alleles per locus. We have investigated the origin of allelic size polymorphism at the locus PvATA20 in which the number of repeats ranges from 24 to 85. We have related these large differences in repeat number to unequal crossing-over between repeated DNA regions. The diversity analysis revealed contrasted levels of variability according to the bean type. The lower level was evidenced for the very fine French bean, showing the effect of breeders intensive selection.

Origin, distribution and mapping of RAPD markers from wildPetunia species inPetunia hybrida Hort lines.

We have established the first linkage map forPetunia hybrida based upon both RAPD and phenotypical markers. The progeny studied consisted of 100 BC1 individuals derived from the [(St40xTlvl)xTlvl] back-cross. Each morphological marker has previously been mapped onto one of the seven chromosomes. The map consists of 35 RAPD loci of which 24 were affected onto chromosomes while 10 loci were not affected. The loci covered 262.9 cM with a mean distance of 8.2 cM. They are dispersed over seven linkage groups, of which six are carried on identified chromosomes. The RAPD markers were also applied on a set of tenP. hybrida, lines chosen for their diversity and on a set of seven wild species corresponding to the possible ancestors of theP. hybrida species. The markers were found both in the wild species as well as inP. hybrida lines indicating that they are inherited and are stable enough to establish similarities and to suggest relationships between species. Eight out of the ten lines carry different linkage groups of RAPD markers, which suggest that recombinant events occurred between chromosomes which originated in the wild species.