Novel insights into genome-wide associations in Bos indicus reveal genetic linkages between fertility and growth

Abstract

Bos indicus breed Sahiwal, famous for its optimum performance, has so far been genetically improved for performance traits based on phenotypic records and the genomic knowhow regarding genes, regions and biological processes underlying the complex quantitative traits is lacking. In this context, a Genome-wide Association Study was performed for fertility and growth traits in Sahiwal cattle to shed light on its genomic profile. A total of 46 SNPs were found associated with the traits at genome-wide suggestive threshold of P ≤ 10⁻⁴. USP32, LRPPRC, PLA2G10, RRN3 and ASAP1 were identified as putative candidate genes for body weight at different ages. However, several genes mapped for growth traits like GREB1, PLA2G10, RAD51C, BIRC6, TEX14 and PEBP4 had significant physiological underpinnings in determining fertility of the animals. Moreover, Quantitative trait loci (QTL) identification revealed potential overlaps with the already reported QTLs for both fertility and growth for most of the traits. Further, candidate SNP enrichment analysis revealed an enriched biological process for birth weight with a significant reproductive role. Based on the findings, genetic linkages underlying fertility and growth could be discerned in Sahiwal population and may be utilized for improving fertility traits in future.

Keywords:

• Genetic linkage
• fertility
• growth
• GWAS
• Sahiwal

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Director, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) for providing necessary support and staff of Livestock Research Centre, Animal Record cell of Animal Genetics and Breeding division and Livestock Production and Management Section for facilitating sample collection and data recording. The first author is indebted to National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Anand, Gujarat, for genotyping the samples free of cost, as a part of MoU between NDRI and NDDB. Special thanks to Dr. S.K. Onteru for helping in the interpretation of results and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for providing Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).

Disclosure statement

All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The phenotypic and genotypic data can be accessed from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.