Genomic selection for sexual precocity in Nelore heifers

• Grant number: 13/00848-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2013
• End date: July 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Genetics and Improvement of Domestic Animals
• Principal Investigator: Lucia Galvão de Albuquerque
• Grantee: Natália Irano
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 09/16118-5 - Genomic tools to genetic improvement of direct economic important traits in Nelore cattle, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 13/13456-2 - Application of the method single-step in genomic selection for sexual precocity of Nellore heifers, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Reproductive traits are crucial to the economic efficiency of the production system in beef cattle and should be considered as objective selection in animal breeding programs. In tradicional animal breeding, the estimation of breeding value has been performed using only phenotypic information of each animal and the pedigree, without any knowledge of the genetic architecture of selected traits. Through the identification of genes that act on these traits and the selection of animals that carry desirable genes, greater genetic gain can be achieved in a shorter time interval. The genomic selection compared with traditional, based on BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction), provides greater accuracy for predictions of breeding values, mainly on the traits that are expressed in one sex and/or which are of low heritability, such as the traits of sexual precocity. The overall goal of this project is the evaluation of statistical models to predict breeding values from genomic data aiming genomic selection for traits that indicate sexual precocity in Nelore females. Will be genotyped approximately 2,000 Nelore females, all with pedigree and performance information available. A panel of over 777,000 SNPs of HDBovineSNP BeadChip (High-Density Bovine BeadChip) will be used to genotype the animals. The genomic information will be analyzed considering four different methodologies that involve several steps (BLUP, BayesA, BayesB and Lasso Bayesian), in addition the single-step methodology.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

IRANO, NATALIA; FERREIRA DE CAMARGO, GREGORIO MIGUEL; COSTA, RAPHAEL BERMAL; NASCIMENTO TERAKADO, ANA PAULA; BRAGA MAGALHAES, ANA FABRICIA; DE OLIVEIRA SILVA, RAFAEL MEDEIROS; DIAS, MARINA MORTATI; BIGNARDI, ANNAIZA BRAGA; BALDI, FERNANDO; CARVALHEIRO, ROBERTO; et al. Genome-Wide Association Study for Indicator Traits of Sexual Precocity in Nellore Cattle. PLoS One, v. 11, n. 8, AUG 5 2016. (09/16118-5, 13/00848-0)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

IRANO, Natália. Seleção e associação genômica para precocidade sexual em bovinos da raça Nelore. 2015. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias. Jaboticabal Jaboticabal.