An exploratory data analysis on genetic architecture in Bos taurus through miRNAs within QTLs and their target genes

Abstract

Understanding the genetic architecture is important because it allows us to understand the relationship between molecular markers, like miRNAs, QTLs and SNPs, and traits of interest such as milk yield, lipidic content in milk, heat tolerance etc. In the present study we performed an exploratory analysis that found an association of 480 miRNAs within QTLs related to 155 traits. We also discovered that those 480 miRNAs might modulate the expression of 12.374 genes. The most predominant traits available in the data were milk related, such as milk yield and fatty acids content in milk. Besides, the functional enrichment analysis revealed that some of those genes were linked to sensory perception, olfactory perception, perception of stimulus and chemical stimulus, localization, establishment of localization, transport etc. Furthermore, the discovery of miRNAs within QTLs and their target analysis suggests that they might be associated with characteristics of interest. By analyzing these relationships, we strongly encourage that future QTL studies should include miRNAs analysis. Altogether, our analysis enabled us to explore the association between multiple complex traits, miRNAs within QTLs and their target genes in Bos taurus that might have implications in breeding programs.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Genetic architecture
• breeding programs
• miRNAs
• QTLs

Acknowledgements

Also, we thank the Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Proteomics of UFPEL for providing high-performance computational infrastructure.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data, the results and the notebook with the codes are available on https://github.com/hadassa-ortiz/exploratory_analysis_miRNAs_QTLs.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Fundação de Amparo à pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul [FAPERGS-FAPESP #19/2551-0000953-3] and was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) Finance Code 001 and AUXPE #2537/2018. VFC is individually supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico.