Genomic wide association study for feed efficiency traits in Nellore cattle breeding programs

• Grant number: 16/24228-9
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics
• Cooperation agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Lucia Galvão de Albuquerque
• Grantee: Samuel Wallace Boer dos Santos
• Home 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): 17/13411-0 - Evaluation of benefits in combining two Nelore populations for genomic selection, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

Feed efficiency traits are directly associated with beef cattle profitability and sustainability. Weight gain, feed consumption, conversion rate and residual feed intake (RFI), for example, are important traits for the selection of efficient animals within the production system, however, with the exception of weight gain, these traits are not considered as selection criteria due to the difficulty in obtaining phenotypes for the same animals. Currently, with the advance of sequencing and genotyping technologies, high-density SNP chips are available on market. These molecular information can be used for genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which allow the identification of genetic variants associated with the trait expression in different populations. Therefore, this project aims to conduct a genome-wide association study for feed efficiency, feed intake, weight gain, residual feed intake, and feed conversion rate in two Nelore populations belonging to two breeding programs: Instituto de Zootecnia (Sertãozinho/SP), and Nelore Qualitas . This project may detect chromosomal regions that are associated with the evaluated traits, aiming to find possible differences or similarities between the populations, and also to evaluate the existence of common candidate genes in both herds. The animals will be challenged in an individual performance test and evaluated for at least 70 days for feed consumption, weight gain, RFI and feed conversion rate. At the end of the test in 2016, we expecte to have a total of 1840 genotyped animals with phenotypic information. The consistency analysis will be performed for each trait, and the variance components will be estimated by using the Single-Step methodology. The animal model will include the fixed effect of contemporary group, fitting the genetic additive direct and residual effects as random. (AU)

Academic Publications

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

SANTOS, Samuel Wallace Boer dos. Estudos genômicos de características indicadoras de eficiência alimentar em duas populações de bovinos da raça Nelore. 2018. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias..