Identification and characterization of signatures of selection in cattle from high density genotypic data

• Grant number: 13/26772-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: January 07, 2014
• End date: July 21, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Reproduction
• Principal Investigator: José Fernando Garcia
• Grantee: José Fernando Garcia
• Host Investigator: Tad S. Sonstegard
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária (FMVA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araçatuba. Araçatuba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, United States

Abstract

Brazil occupies the first place in the ranking of beef exporting countries, and projections for the sector show an annual growth of 2.0 %for the next ten years. Thus there is a clear need for research to lead to the development of technologies that provide effective increases in livestock productivity. Initiatives such as the sequencing of the bovine genome and the Hap Map project, rise to a range of tools that can accelerate the breeding technologies. One of these tools is based on genetic markers of single nucleotide polymorphism type, able to provide a broad coverage of the entire genome to interrogate 777,962 SNPs simultaneously. This technology popularized studies "signature selection". In humans, studies of signature selection help to clarify how cultural and environmental changes may work shaping the genome and identify genes that are causing or contributing diseases. In this project, we will try to detect the footprints left in the genomes by the selection mechanisms, which act by altering allele frequencies leaving marks in the structure of genotypic variation. In cattle, due to strong selection artificial, usually the location of these signatures will be associated with a region controlling traits of interest in selection. Thus This project aims adapt and validate a methodology to find the genotypes of different races cattle, indicating regions of signatures of selection. (AU)