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Sanchez MP, Escouflaire C, Baur A, Bottin F, Hozé C, Boussaha M, Fritz S, Capitan A, Boichard D. X-linked genes influence various complex traits in dairy cattle. BMC Genomics 2023; 24:338. [PMID: 37337145 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-023-09438-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The search for quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting traits of interest in mammals is frequently limited to autosomes, with the X chromosome excluded because of its hemizygosity in males. This study aimed to assess the importance of the X chromosome in the genetic determinism of 11 complex traits related to milk production, milk composition, mastitis resistance, fertility, and stature in 236,496 cows from three major French dairy breeds (Holstein, Montbéliarde, and Normande) and three breeds of regional importance (Abondance, Tarentaise, and Vosgienne). RESULTS Estimates of the proportions of heritability due to autosomes and X chromosome (h²X) were consistent among breeds. On average over the 11 traits, h²X=0.008 and the X chromosome explained ~ 3.5% of total genetic variance. GWAS was performed within-breed at the sequence level (~ 200,000 genetic variants) and then combined in a meta-analysis. QTL were identified for most breeds and traits analyzed, with the exception of Tarentaise and Vosgienne and two fertility traits. Overall, 3, 74, 59, and 71 QTL were identified in Abondance, Montbéliarde, Normande, and Holstein, respectively, and most were associated with the most-heritable traits (milk traits and stature). The meta-analyses, which assessed a total of 157 QTL for the different traits, highlighted new QTL and refined the positions of some QTL found in the within-breed analyses. Altogether, our analyses identified a number of functional candidate genes, with the most notable being GPC3, MBNL3, HS6ST2, and DMD for dairy traits; TMEM164, ACSL4, ENOX2, HTR2C, AMOT, and IRAK1 for udder health; MAMLD1 and COL4A6 for fertility; and NRK, ESX1, GPR50, GPC3, and GPC4 for stature. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates the importance of the X chromosome in the genetic determinism of complex traits in dairy cattle and highlights new functional candidate genes and variants for these traits. These results could potentially be extended to other species as many X-linked genes are shared among mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie-Pierre Sanchez
- Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, GABI, Jouy-en-Josas, 78350, France.
| | | | | | - Fiona Bottin
- Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, GABI, Jouy-en-Josas, 78350, France
| | | | - Mekki Boussaha
- Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, GABI, Jouy-en-Josas, 78350, France
| | | | - Aurélien Capitan
- Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, GABI, Jouy-en-Josas, 78350, France
| | - Didier Boichard
- Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, GABI, Jouy-en-Josas, 78350, France
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Ramos L, Antunes A. Decoding sex: Elucidating sex determination and how high-quality genome assemblies are untangling the evolutionary dynamics of sex chromosomes. Genomics 2022; 114:110277. [PMID: 35104609 DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2022.110277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2021] [Revised: 12/22/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Sexual reproduction is a diverse and widespread process. In gonochoristic species, the differentiation of sexes occurs through diverse mechanisms, influenced by environmental and genetic factors. In most vertebrates, a master-switch gene is responsible for triggering a sex determination network. However, only a few genes have acquired master-switch functions, and this process is associated with the evolution of sex-chromosomes, which have a significant influence in evolution. Additionally, their highly repetitive regions impose challenges for high-quality sequencing, even using high-throughput, state-of-the-art techniques. Here, we review the mechanisms involved in sex determination and their role in the evolution of species, particularly vertebrates, focusing on sex chromosomes and the challenges involved in sequencing these genomic elements. We also address the improvements provided by the growth of sequencing projects, by generating a massive number of near-gapless, telomere-to-telomere, chromosome-level, phased assemblies, increasing the number and quality of sex-chromosome sequences available for further studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luana Ramos
- CIIMAR/CIMAR, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões, Av. General Norton de Matos, s/n, 4450-208 Porto, Portugal; Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
| | - Agostinho Antunes
- CIIMAR/CIMAR, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões, Av. General Norton de Matos, s/n, 4450-208 Porto, Portugal; Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.
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Shen B, Freebern E, Jiang J, Maltecca C, Cole JB, Liu GE, Ma L. Effect of Temperature and Maternal Age on Recombination Rate in Cattle. Front Genet 2021; 12:682718. [PMID: 34354736 PMCID: PMC8329537 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2021.682718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Meiotic recombination is a fundamental biological process that facilitates meiotic division and promotes genetic diversity. Recombination is phenotypically plastic and affected by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The effect of maternal age on recombination rates has been characterized in a wide range of species, but the effect’s direction remains inconclusive. Additionally, the characterization of temperature effects on recombination has been limited to model organisms. Here we seek to comprehensively determine the impact of genetic and environmental factors on recombination rate in dairy cattle. Using a large cattle pedigree, we identified maternal recombination events within 305,545 three-generation families. By comparing recombination rate between parents of different ages, we found a quadratic trend between maternal age and recombination rate in cattle. In contrast to either an increasing or decreasing trend in humans, cattle recombination rate decreased with maternal age until 65 months and then increased afterward. Combining recombination data with temperature information from public databases, we found a positive correlation between environmental temperature during fetal development of offspring and recombination rate in female parents. Finally, we fitted a full recombination rate model on all related factors, including genetics, maternal age, and environmental temperatures. Based on the final model, we confirmed the effect of maternal age and environmental temperature during fetal development of offspring on recombination rate with an estimated heritability of 10% (SE = 0.03) in cattle. Collectively, we characterized the maternal age and temperature effects on recombination rate and suggested the adaptation of meiotic recombination to environmental stimuli in cattle. Our results provided first-hand information regarding the plastic nature of meiotic recombination in a mammalian species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Botong Shen
- Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Ellen Freebern
- Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Jicai Jiang
- Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, United States.,Department of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Christian Maltecca
- Department of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - John B Cole
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, BARC, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD, United States
| | - George E Liu
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, BARC, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD, United States
| | - Li Ma
- Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, United States
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Johnsson M, Whalen A, Ros-Freixedes R, Gorjanc G, Chen CY, Herring WO, de Koning DJ, Hickey JM. Genetic variation in recombination rate in the pig. Genet Sel Evol 2021; 53:54. [PMID: 34171988 PMCID: PMC8235837 DOI: 10.1186/s12711-021-00643-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 06/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Meiotic recombination results in the exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes. Recombination rate varies between different parts of the genome, between individuals, and is influenced by genetics. In this paper, we assessed the genetic variation in recombination rate along the genome and between individuals in the pig using multilocus iterative peeling on 150,000 individuals across nine genotyped pedigrees. We used these data to estimate the heritability of recombination and perform a genome-wide association study of recombination in the pig. Results Our results confirmed known features of the recombination landscape of the pig genome, including differences in genetic length of chromosomes and marked sex differences. The recombination landscape was repeatable between lines, but at the same time, there were differences in average autosome-wide recombination rate between lines. The heritability of autosome-wide recombination rate was low but not zero (on average 0.07 for females and 0.05 for males). We found six genomic regions that are associated with recombination rate, among which five harbour known candidate genes involved in recombination: RNF212, SHOC1, SYCP2, MSH4 and HFM1. Conclusions Our results on the variation in recombination rate in the pig genome agree with those reported for other vertebrates, with a low but nonzero heritability, and the identification of a major quantitative trait locus for recombination rate that is homologous to that detected in several other species. This work also highlights the utility of using large-scale livestock data to understand biological processes. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12711-021-00643-0.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Johnsson
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scotland, UK. .,Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7023, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden.
| | - Andrew Whalen
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scotland, UK
| | - Roger Ros-Freixedes
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scotland, UK.,Departament de Ciència Animal, Universitat de Lleida-Agrotecnio-CERCA Center, Lleida, Spain
| | - Gregor Gorjanc
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scotland, UK
| | - Ching-Yi Chen
- Pig Improvement Company, Genus plc, 100 Bluegrass Commons Blvd., Ste2200, Hendersonville, TN, 37075, USA
| | - William O Herring
- Pig Improvement Company, Genus plc, 100 Bluegrass Commons Blvd., Ste2200, Hendersonville, TN, 37075, USA
| | - Dirk-Jan de Koning
- Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7023, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - John M Hickey
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scotland, UK
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Druet T, Legarra A. Theoretical and empirical comparisons of expected and realized relationships for the X-chromosome. Genet Sel Evol 2020; 52:50. [PMID: 32819272 PMCID: PMC7441635 DOI: 10.1186/s12711-020-00570-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2020] [Accepted: 08/12/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Background X-chromosomal loci present different inheritance patterns compared to autosomal loci and must be modeled accordingly. Sexual chromosomes are not systematically considered in whole-genome relationship matrices although rules based on genealogical or marker information have been derived. Loci on the X-chromosome could have a significant contribution to the additive genetic variance, in particular for some traits such as those related to reproduction. Thus, accounting for the X-chromosome relationship matrix might be informative to better understand the architecture of complex traits (e.g., by estimating the variance associated to this chromosome) and to improve their genomic prediction. For such applications, previous studies have shown the benefits of combining information from genotyped and ungenotyped individuals. Results In this paper, we start by presenting rules to compute a genomic relationship matrix (GRM) for the X-chromosome (GX) without making any assumption on dosage compensation, and based on coding of gene content with 0/1 for males and 0/1/2 for females. This coding adjusts naturally to previously derived pedigree-based relationships (S) for the X-chromosome. When needed, we propose to accommodate and estimate dosage compensation and genetic heterogeneity across sexes via multiple trait models. Using a Holstein dairy cattle dataset, including males and females, we then empirically illustrate that realized relationships (GX) matches expectations (S). However, GX presents high deviations from S. GX has also a lower dimensionality compared to the autosomal GRM. In particular, individuals are frequently identical along the entire chromosome. Finally, we confirm that the heritability of gene content for markers on the X-chromosome that are estimated by using S is 1, further demonstrating that S and GX can be combined. For the pseudo-autosomal region, we demonstrate that the expected relationships vary according to position because of the sex-gradient. We end by presenting the rules to construct the 'H matrix’ by combining both relationship matrices. Conclusions This work shows theoretically and empirically that a pedigree-based relationship matrix built with rules specifically developed for the X-chromosome (S) matches the realized GRM for the X-chromosome. Therefore, applications that combine expected relationships and genotypes for markers on the X-chromosome should use S and GX.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Druet
- Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA-R & Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
| | - Andres Legarra
- GenPhySE, INPT, INRAE, ENVT, 31326, Castanet Tolosan, France.
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