Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) in reproductive traits of Nellore heifers

• Grant number: 14/26354-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: April 24, 2015
• End date: April 23, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Reproduction
• Principal Investigator: José Bento Sterman Ferraz
• Grantee: Gerson Antônio de Oliveira Júnior
• Supervisor: Dorian J. Garrick
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Iowa State University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/12097-9 - Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) applied to reproductive traits in Nellore heifers, BP.DR

Abstract

Reproductive traits in livestock production systems directly influence the amount of animals for sale and the generation interval of the population. However, to deal with these traits related to sexual precocious is typically a complicated process because the strong environmental influences and to be controlled by a large number of genes. The evolution in genomic areas enables studies to identify and describe genes or genetic markers that influence these traits, helping to better understanding of the genetic effect in reproductive traits. This project is part of a partnership between University of Copenhagen - Denmark and University of São Paulo - Brazil, called GIFT (Genomic Improvement of Fertilization traits in Danish and Brazilian Cattle). One of the objectives is to develop genomic analysis in Nellore heifers, aiming to find the genetic influence in early heifer pregnancy traits. The database will consist of approximately 1500 Nellore heifers from different herds from Brazil, genotyped with GeneSeek SNP Beadchips Bovine GGP-HDi (78k). This platform can be imputed to Illumina Bovine HD (~777k) using a genotyped reference population. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) will be performed with different approaches aiming to detect important genomic regions for reproductive traits. The effects of allelic substitution will be predicted by different statistical methods (GBLUP, Bayes A, B, C, CÀ, R and LASSO) and these results will be incorporated in genomic selection analysis. Moreover, structure analysis like Runs of Homozygosity and Copy Number Variation will be performed in an attempt to explain the genetic variability involved in traits. (AU)

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)

OLIVEIRA JUNIOR, GERSON A.; PINHEIRO, VINICIUS G.; FONSECA, PABLO A. S.; COSTA, CAMILA B.; PIOLTINE, ELISA M.; BOTIGELLI, RAMON C.; RAZZA, EDUARDO M.; ERENO, RONALDO L.; FERRAZ, JOSE B. S.; SENEDA, MARCELO M.; et al. Genomic and phenotypic analyses of antral follicle count in Aberdeen Angus cows. LIVESTOCK SCIENCE, v. 249, p. 7-pg., 2021-05-18. (16/16841-2, 12/50533-2, 19/10732-5, 14/26354-6, 12/23409-9, 14/07566-2, 13/12097-9)

OLIVEIRA JUNIOR, GERSON A.; PINHEIRO, VINICIUS G.; FONSECA, PABLO A. S.; COSTA, CAMILA B.; PIOLTINE, ELISA M.; BOTIGELLI, RAMON C.; RAZZA, EDUARDO M.; ERENO, RONALDO L.; FERRAZ, JOSE B. S.; SENEDA, MARCELO M.; et al. enomic and phenotypic analyses of antral follicle count in Aberdeen Angus cow. LIVESTOCK SCIENCE, v. 249, JUL 2021. (14/26354-6, 14/07566-2, 19/10732-5, 12/50533-2, 12/23409-9, 16/16841-2, 13/12097-9)

OLIVEIRA JUNIOR, G. A.; PEREZ, B. C.; COLE, J. B.; SANTANA, M. H. A.; SILVEIRA, J.; MAZZONI, G.; VENTURA, R. V.; SANTANA JUNIOR, M. L.; KADARMIDEEN, H. N.; GARRICK, D. J.; et al. Genomic study and Medical Subject Headings enrichment analysis of early pregnancy rate and antral follicle numbers in Nelore heifers. JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCE, v. 95, n. 11, p. 4796-4812, NOV 2017. (12/50533-2, 13/12097-9, 14/26354-6, 14/07566-2)