Signatures of selection in high-density genotype data from the Bovine HapMap Project

• Grant number: 13/17203-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2014
• End date: March 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: José Fernando Garcia
• Grantee: Pier Kenji Rauschkolb Katsuda Ito
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária (FMVA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araçatuba. Araçatuba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Brazil occupies the first place in the ranking of beef exporter countries, and projections for the sector showed an annual growth of 2.0% for the next ten years. Thus, there is a clear need for research leading to the development of technologies that can provide effective increases in livestock productivity. Initiatives such as the sequencing of the bovine genome and the HapMap project, originated range of tools that can accelerate the genetic improvement of livestock. One of these tools, based on a type of genetic marker known as Single-nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP), is able to provide a thorough coverage of the entire genome by interrogating 777,962 SNP simultaneously. This technology popularized studies of "selection signatures". In humans, "signatures of selection" studies, helped to clarify how cultural and environmental changes act modeling genome and to identify genes that contribute to or are causative of diseases. In this type of study, we try to detect the "footprints" left in the genome by selection mechanisms, which act by altering allele frequencies leaving a mark on the structure of genotypic variation. In cattle, due to strong artificial selection, usually the location of these signatures will be associated with a region that regulates traits of economic interest. Thus, this project aims to adapt and validate methodology to seek regions indicative of selection signatures in the genomes of different bovine breeds.