Standardization of Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) based on DNA Pooling and allelotyping in High Density Arrays in Nellore

• Grant number: 12/17153-1
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Genetics and Improvement of Domestic Animals
• Principal Investigator: Heidge Fukumasu
• Grantee: Francisco José de Novais
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil

Abstract

As a consequence for the increased demand of beef in the next years, an increased offtake rate in Brazilian production by investing primarily in technologies and services. These technologies should be able to increase the efficiency of productive and reproductive traits however this is limited by the low to moderate heritability and high cost of measurements with significant accuracies. The search for low cost reproductive characteristics is of paramount importance such as the age at first calving where there is no additional cost in production for its quantification. On the other hand, this trait is still limited by low heritability, environmental influences and has relative correlation with body weight of calf weaned. Nonetheless, with the advancement of biotechnology it is now possible to identify phenotypic associations between genomic loci and traits allowing the estimation of how much of the variability of a phenotypic trait is due to genetics. This might be done by association analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms spaced evenly throughout the genome in SNP microarrays, which could validate specific DNA markers associated with a phenotype for use within breeding programs. Thus, the aim of this work is standardize an experimental model for phase one GWAS based on DNA pooling from animals with high and low efficiency for age at first calving simultaneously with higher body weight gain of calves (adjusted for 210 days).