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George L, Alex R, Gowane G, Vohra V, Joshi P, Kumar R, Verma A. Weighted single step GWAS reveals genomic regions associated with economic traits in Murrah buffaloes. Anim Biotechnol 2024; 35:2319622. [PMID: 38437001 DOI: 10.1080/10495398.2024.2319622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
The objective of the present study was to identify genomic regions influencing economic traits in Murrah buffaloes using weighted single step Genome Wide Association Analysis (WssGWAS). Data on 2000 animals, out of which 120 were genotyped using a double digest Restriction site Associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing approach. The phenotypic data were collected from NDRI, India, on growth traits, viz., body weight at 6M (month), 12M, 18M and 24M, production traits like 305D (day) milk yield, lactation length (LL) and dry period (DP) and reproduction traits like age at first calving (AFC), calving interval (CI) and first service period (FSP). The biallelic genotypic data consisted of 49353 markers post-quality check. The heritability estimates were moderate to high, low to moderate, low for growth, production, reproduction traits, respectively. Important genomic regions explaining more than 0.5% of the total additive genetic variance explained by 30 adjacent SNPs were selected for further analysis of candidate genes. In this study, 105 genomic regions were associated with growth, 35 genomic regions with production and 42 window regions with reproduction traits. Different candidate genes were identified in these genomic regions, of which important are OSBPL8, NAP1L1 for growth, CNTNAP2 for production and ILDR2, TADA1 and POGK for reproduction traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda George
- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India
| | - Rani Alex
- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India
| | - Gopal Gowane
- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India
| | - Vikas Vohra
- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India
| | - Pooja Joshi
- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India
| | - Ravi Kumar
- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India
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van den Berg I, Chamberlain AJ, MacLeod IM, Nguyen TV, Goddard ME, Xiang R, Mason B, Meier S, Phyn CVC, Burke CR, Pryce JE. Using expression data to fine map QTL associated with fertility in dairy cattle. Genet Sel Evol 2024; 56:42. [PMID: 38844868 PMCID: PMC11154999 DOI: 10.1186/s12711-024-00912-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Female fertility is an important trait in dairy cattle. Identifying putative causal variants associated with fertility may help to improve the accuracy of genomic prediction of fertility. Combining expression data (eQTL) of genes, exons, gene splicing and allele specific expression is a promising approach to fine map QTL to get closer to the causal mutations. Another approach is to identify genomic differences between cows selected for high and low fertility and a selection experiment in New Zealand has created exactly this resource. Our objective was to combine multiple types of expression data, fertility traits and allele frequency in high- (POS) and low-fertility (NEG) cows with a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on calving interval in Australian cows to fine-map QTL associated with fertility in both Australia and New Zealand dairy cattle populations. RESULTS Variants that were significantly associated with calving interval (CI) were strongly enriched for variants associated with gene, exon, gene splicing and allele-specific expression, indicating that there is substantial overlap between QTL associated with CI and eQTL. We identified 671 genes with significant differential expression between POS and NEG cows, with the largest fold change detected for the CCDC196 gene on chromosome 10. Our results provide numerous candidate genes associated with female fertility in dairy cattle, including GYS2 and TIGAR on chromosome 5 and SYT3 and HSD17B14 on chromosome 18. Multiple QTL regions were located in regions with large numbers of copy number variants (CNV). To identify the causal mutations for these variants, long read sequencing may be useful. CONCLUSIONS Variants that were significantly associated with CI were highly enriched for eQTL. We detected 671 genes that were differentially expressed between POS and NEG cows. Several QTL detected for CI overlapped with eQTL, providing candidate genes for fertility in dairy cattle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irene van den Berg
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre of AgriBioscience, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3082, Australia.
| | - Amanda J Chamberlain
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre of AgriBioscience, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3082, Australia
- School of Applied Systems Biology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
| | - Iona M MacLeod
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre of AgriBioscience, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3082, Australia
| | - Tuan V Nguyen
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre of AgriBioscience, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3082, Australia
| | - Mike E Goddard
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre of AgriBioscience, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3082, Australia
- Faculty of Veterinary & Agricultural Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
| | - Ruidong Xiang
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre of AgriBioscience, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3082, Australia
- Faculty of Veterinary & Agricultural Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
| | - Brett Mason
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre of AgriBioscience, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3082, Australia
| | | | | | | | - Jennie E Pryce
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre of AgriBioscience, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3082, Australia
- School of Applied Systems Biology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
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Chen SY, Gloria LS, Pedrosa VB, Doucette J, Boerman JP, Brito LF. Unraveling the genomic background of resilience based on variability in milk yield and milk production levels in North American Holstein cattle through genome-wide association study and Mendelian randomization analyses. J Dairy Sci 2024; 107:1035-1053. [PMID: 37776995 DOI: 10.3168/jds.2023-23650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/02/2023]
Abstract
Breeding more resilient animals will benefit the dairy cattle industry in the long term, especially as global climate changes become more severe. Previous studies have reported genetic parameters for various milk yield-based resilience indicators, but the underlying genomic background of these traits remain unknown. In this study, we conducted GWAS of 62,029 SNPs with 4 milk yield-based resilience indicators, including the weighted occurrence frequency (wfPert) and accumulated milk losses (dPert) of milk yield perturbations, and log-transformed variance (LnVar) and lag-1 autocorrelation (rauto) of daily yield residuals. These variables were previously derived from 5.6 million daily milk yield records from 21,350 lactations (parities 1-3) of 11,787 North American Holstein cows. The average daily milk yield (ADMY) throughout lactation was also included to compare the shared genetic background of resilience indicators with milk yield. The differential genetic background of these indicators was first revealed by the significant genomic regions identified and significantly enriched biological pathways of positional candidate genes, which confirmed the genetic difference among resilience indicators. Interestingly, the functional analyses of candidate genes suggested that the regulation of intestinal homeostasis is most likely affecting resilience derived based on variability in milk yield. Based on Mendelian randomization analyses of multiple instrumental SNPs, we further found an unfavorable causal association of ADMY with LnVar. In conclusion, the resilience indicators evaluated are genetically different traits, and there are causal associations of milk yield with some of the resilience indicators evaluated. In addition to providing biological insights into the molecular regulation mechanisms of resilience derived based on variability in milk yield, this study also indicates the need for developing selection indexes combining multiple indicator traits and taking into account their genetic relationship for breeding more resilient dairy cattle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shi-Yi Chen
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907; Farm Animal Genetic Resources Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611130, China
| | - Leonardo S Gloria
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
| | - Victor B Pedrosa
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
| | - Jarrod Doucette
- Agriculture Information Technology (AgIT), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
| | | | - Luiz F Brito
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
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4
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Ma Z, Chang Y, Brito LF, Li Y, Yang T, Wang Y, Yang N. Multitrait meta-analyses identify potential candidate genes for growth-related traits in Holstein heifers. J Dairy Sci 2023; 106:9055-9070. [PMID: 37641329 DOI: 10.3168/jds.2023-23462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the underlying pleiotropic relationships among growth and body size traits is important for refining breeding strategies in dairy cattle for optimal body size and growth rate. Therefore, we performed single-trait GWAS for monthly-recorded body weight (BW), hip height, body length, and chest girth from birth to 12 mo of age in Holstein animals, followed by stepwise multiple regression of independent or lowly-linked markers from GWAS loci using conditional and joint association analyses (COJO). Subsequently, we conducted a multitrait meta-analysis to detect pleiotropic markers. Based on the single-trait GWAS, we identified 170 significant SNPs, in which 59 of them remained significant after the COJO analyses. The most significant SNP, located at BTA7:3,676,741, explained 2.93% of the total phenotypic variance for BW6 (BW at 6 mo of age). We identified 17 SNPs with potential pleiotropic effects based on the multitrait meta-analyses, which resulted in 3 additional SNPs in comparison to those detected based on the single-trait GWAS. The identified quantitative trait loci regions overlap with genes known to influence human growth-related traits. According to positional and functional analyses, we proposed HMGA2, HNF4G, MED13L, BHLHE40, FRZB, DMP1, TRIB3, and GATAD2A as important candidate genes influencing the studied traits. The combination of single-trait GWAS and meta-analyses of GWAS results improved the efficiency of detecting associated SNPs, and provided new insights into the genetic mechanisms of growth and development in Holstein cattle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Z Ma
- Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture of China, National Engineering Laboratory of Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, China; Beijing Sunlon Livestock Development Co. Ltd., 100029, Beijing, China
| | - Y Chang
- Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture of China, National Engineering Laboratory of Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, China
| | - Luiz F Brito
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
| | - Y Li
- Beijing Sunlon Livestock Development Co. Ltd., 100029, Beijing, China
| | - T Yang
- Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture of China, National Engineering Laboratory of Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, China
| | - Y Wang
- Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture of China, National Engineering Laboratory of Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, China.
| | - N Yang
- Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture of China, National Engineering Laboratory of Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, China.
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Alves K, Brito LF, Schenkel FS. Genomic prediction of fertility and calving traits in Holstein cattle based on models including epistatic genetic effects. J Anim Breed Genet 2023; 140:568-581. [PMID: 37254293 DOI: 10.1111/jbg.12810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2022] [Revised: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 05/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
The goal of this study was to investigate whether the inclusion of genomic information and epistatic (additive by additive) genetic effects would increase the accuracy of predicting phenotypes adjusted for known environmental effects, reduce prediction bias and minimize the confounding between additive and additive by additive epistatic effects on fertility and calving traits in Holstein cattle. Phenotypic and genotypic records were available for 6090 cows. Eight cow traits were assessed including 56-day nonreturn rate (NRR), number of services (NS), calving to first insemination (CTFS), first insemination to conception (FSTC), gestation length (GL), calving ease (CE), stillbirth (SB) and calf size (CZ). Four scenarios were assessed for their ability to predict adjusted phenotypes, which included: (1) traditional pedigree-based Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (P-BLUP) for additive genetic effects (PA); (2) P-BLUP for additive and epistatic (additive by additive) genetic effects (PAE); (3) genomic BLUP (G-BLUP) for additive genetic effects (GA); and (4) G-BLUP for additive and epistatic genetic effects (GAEn, where n = 1-3 depending on the alternative ways to construct the epistatic genomic matrix used). Constructing epistatic relationship matrix as the Hadamard product of the additive genomic relationship matrix (GAE1), which is the usual method and implicitly assumes a model that fits all pairwise interactions between markers twice and includes the interactions of the markers with themselves (dominance). Two additional constructions of the epistatic genomic relationship matrix were compared to test whether removing the double counting of interactions and the interaction of the markers with themselves (GAE2), and removing double counting of interactions between markers, but including the interaction of the markers with themselves (GAE3) would had an impact on the prediction and estimation error correlation (i.e. confounding) between additive and epistatic genetic effects. Fitting epistatic genetic effects explained up to 5.7% of the variance for NRR (GAE3), 7.7% for NS (GAE1), 11.9% for CTFS (GAE3), 11.1% for FSTC (GAE2), 25.7% for GL (GAE1), 2.3% for CE (GAE1), 14.3% for SB (GAE3) and 15.2% for CZ (GAE1). Despite a substantial proportion of variance being explained by epistatic effects for some traits, the prediction accuracies were similar or lower for GAE models compared with pedigree models and genomic models without epistatic effects. Although the prediction accuracy of direct genomic values did not change significantly between the three variations of the epistatic genetic relationship matrix used, removing the interaction of the markers with themselves reduced the confounding between additive and additive by additive epistatic effects. These results suggest that epistatic genetic effects contribute to the variance of some fertility and calving traits in Holstein cattle. However, the inclusion of epistatic genetic effects in the genomic prediction of these traits is complex and warrant further investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristen Alves
- Center for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
| | - Luiz F Brito
- Center for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
| | - Flavio S Schenkel
- Center for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
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Salavati M, Clark R, Becker D, Kühn C, Plastow G, Dupont S, Moreira GCM, Charlier C, Clark EL. Improving the annotation of the cattle genome by annotating transcription start sites in a diverse set of tissues and populations using Cap Analysis Gene Expression sequencing. G3 (BETHESDA, MD.) 2023; 13:jkad108. [PMID: 37216666 PMCID: PMC10411599 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkad108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the genomic control of tissue-specific gene expression and regulation can help to inform the application of genomic technologies in farm animal breeding programs. The fine mapping of promoters [transcription start sites (TSS)] and enhancers (divergent amplifying segments of the genome local to TSS) in different populations of cattle across a wide diversity of tissues provides information to locate and understand the genomic drivers of breed- and tissue-specific characteristics. To this aim, we used Cap Analysis Gene Expression (CAGE) sequencing, of 24 different tissues from 3 populations of cattle, to define TSS and their coexpressed short-range enhancers (<1 kb) in the ARS-UCD1.2_Btau5.0.1Y reference genome (1000bulls run9) and analyzed tissue and population specificity of expressed promoters. We identified 51,295 TSS and 2,328 TSS-Enhancer regions shared across the 3 populations (dairy, beef-dairy cross, and Canadian Kinsella composite cattle from 2 individuals, 1 of each sex, per population). Cross-species comparative analysis of CAGE data from 7 other species, including sheep, revealed a set of TSS and TSS-Enhancers that were specific to cattle. The CAGE data set will be combined with other transcriptomic information for the same tissues to create a new high-resolution map of transcript diversity across tissues and populations in cattle for the BovReg project. Here we provide the CAGE data set and annotation tracks for TSS and TSS-Enhancers in the cattle genome. This new annotation information will improve our understanding of the drivers of gene expression and regulation in cattle and help to inform the application of genomic technologies in breeding programs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mazdak Salavati
- The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH25 9RG, UK
| | - Richard Clark
- Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility, Genetics Core, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, UK
| | - Doreen Becker
- Institute of Genome Biology, Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Dummerstorf 18196, Germany
| | - Christa Kühn
- Institute of Genome Biology, Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Dummerstorf 18196, Germany
- Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University Rostock, Rostock 18059, Germany
| | - Graham Plastow
- Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, Livestock Gentec, University of Alberta, Edmonton T6G 2H1, Canada
| | - Sébastien Dupont
- Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Institute, University of Liège, Liège 4000, Belgium
| | | | - Carole Charlier
- Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Institute, University of Liège, Liège 4000, Belgium
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Liège 4000, Belgium
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7
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Marrella MA, Biase FH. A multi-omics analysis identifies molecular features associated with fertility in heifers (Bos taurus). Sci Rep 2023; 13:12664. [PMID: 37542054 PMCID: PMC10403585 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-39858-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 08/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Infertility or subfertility is a critical barrier to sustainable cattle production, including in heifers. The development of heifers that do not produce a calf within an optimum window of time is a critical factor for the profitability and sustainability of the cattle industry. In parallel, heifers are an excellent biomedical model for understanding the underlying etiology of infertility because well-nourished heifers can still be infertile, mostly because of inherent physiological and genetic causes. Using a high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip, we collected genotypic data, which were analyzed using an association analysis in PLINK with Fisher's exact test. We also produced quantitative transcriptome data and proteome data. Transcriptome data were analyzed using the quasi-likelihood test followed by the Wald's test, and the likelihood test and proteome data were analyzed using a generalized mixed model and Student's t-test. We identified two SNPs significantly associated with heifer fertility (rs110918927, chr12: 85648422, P = 6.7 × 10-7; and rs109366560, chr11:37666527, P = 2.6 × 10-5). We identified two genes with differential transcript abundance (eFDR ≤ 0.002) between the two groups (Fertile and Sub-Fertile): Adipocyte Plasma Membrane Associated Protein (APMAP, 1.16 greater abundance in the Fertile group) and Dynein Axonemal Intermediate Chain 7 (DNAI7, 1.23 greater abundance in the Sub-Fertile group). Our analysis revealed that the protein Alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase FTO was more abundant in the plasma collected from Fertile heifers relative to their Sub-Fertile counterparts (FDR < 0.05). Lastly, an integrative analysis of the three datasets identified a series of molecular features (SNPs, gene transcripts, and proteins) that discriminated 21 out of 22 heifers correctly based on their fertility category. Our multi-omics analyses confirm the complex nature of female fertility. Very importantly, our results also highlight differences in the molecular profile of heifers associated with fertility that transcend the constraints of breed-specific genetic background.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mackenzie A Marrella
- School of Animal Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Fernando H Biase
- School of Animal Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
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Neustaeter A, Brito LF, Hanna WJB, Baird JD, Schenkel FS. Investigating the Genetic Background of Spastic Syndrome in North American Holstein Cattle Based on Heritability, Genome-Wide Association, and Functional Genomic Analyses. Genes (Basel) 2023; 14:1479. [PMID: 37510383 PMCID: PMC10378964 DOI: 10.3390/genes14071479] [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: 07/01/2023] [Revised: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Spastic syndrome is a chronic, progressive disorder of adult cattle characterized by episodes of sudden involuntary muscle contractions or spasms of the extensor and abductor muscles of one or both hind limbs. In this study, a case-control genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed on an adult Holstein cattle cohort. Based on the 50 K and high-density (HD) SNP panel GWAS, we identified 98 and 522 SNPs, respectively. The most significant genomic regions identified are located on BTA9 at approximately 87 megabase pairs (Mb) and BTA7 between 1 and 20 Mb. Functional analyses of significant SNPs identified genes associated with muscle contraction, neuron growth or regulation, and calcium or sodium ion movement. Two candidate genes (FIG4 and FYN) were identified. FIG4 is ubiquitously expressed in skeletal muscle and FYN is involved with processes such as forebrain development, neurogenesis, locomotion, neurogenesis, synapse development, neuron migration, and the positive regulation of neuron projection development. The CACNA1A gene, which codes for a calcium channel subunit protein in the calcium signaling pathway, seems the most compelling candidate gene, as many calcium ion channel disorders are non-degenerative, and produce spastic phenotypes. These results suggest that spastic syndrome is of polygenic inheritance, with important genomic areas of interest on BTA7 and BTA9.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Neustaeter
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock (CGIL), Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Luiz F Brito
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock (CGIL), Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - W J Brad Hanna
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - John D Baird
- Department of Clinical Studies, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Flavio S Schenkel
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock (CGIL), Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
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9
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Hodge MJ, de Las Heras-Saldana S, Rindfleish SJ, Stephen CP, Pant SD. QTLs and Candidate Genes Associated with Semen Traits in Merino Sheep. Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:2286. [PMID: 37508063 PMCID: PMC10376747 DOI: 10.3390/ani13142286] [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: 06/03/2023] [Revised: 07/06/2023] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Ram semen traits play a significant role in conception outcomes, which in turn may influence reproductive efficiency and the overall productivity and profitability of sheep enterprises. Since hundreds of ewes may be inseminated from a single ejaculate, it is important to evaluate semen quality prior to use in sheep breeding programs. Given that semen traits have been found to be heritable, genetic variation likely contributes to the variability observed in these traits. Identifying such genetic variants could provide novel insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying variability in semen traits. Therefore, this study aimed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with semen traits in Merino sheep. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was undertaken using 4506 semen collection records from 246 Merino rams collected between January 2002 and May 2021. The R package RepeatABEL was used to perform a GWAS for semen volume, gross motility, concentration, and percent post-thaw motility. A total of 35 QTLs, located on 16 Ovis aries autosomes (OARs), were significantly associated with either of the four semen traits in this study. A total of 89, 95, 33, and 73 candidate genes were identified, via modified Bonferroni, within the QTLs significantly associated with volume, gross motility, concentration, and percent post-thaw motility, respectively. Among the candidate genes identified, SORD, SH2B1, and NT5E have been previously described to significantly influence spermatogenesis, spermatozoal motility, and high percent post-thaw motility, respectively. Several candidate genes identified could potentially influence ram semen traits based on existing evidence in the literature. As such, validation of these putative candidates may offer the potential to develop future strategies to improve sheep reproductive efficiency. Furthermore, Merino ram semen traits are lowly heritable (0.071-0.139), and thus may be improved by selective breeding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marnie J Hodge
- School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia
- Apiam Animal Health, Apiam Genetic Services, Dubbo, NSW 2830, Australia
| | - Sara de Las Heras-Saldana
- Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit, a Joint Venture of NSW Department of Primary Industries and University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
| | | | - Cyril P Stephen
- School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia
- Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Boorooma Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia
| | - Sameer D Pant
- School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia
- Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Boorooma Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia
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10
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George L, Alex R, Sukhija N, Jaglan K, Vohra V, Kumar R, Verma A. Genetic improvement of economic traits in Murrah buffalo using significant SNPs from genome-wide association study. Trop Anim Health Prod 2023; 55:199. [PMID: 37184817 DOI: 10.1007/s11250-023-03606-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
GWAS helps to identify QTL and candidate genes of specific traits. Buffalo breeding has primarily focused on milk production, but its negative correlation with reproduction traits resulted in unfavorable decline of reproductive performance among buffaloes. A genome wide scan was performed on a total of 120 Murrah buffaloes genotyped by ddRAD sequencing for 13 traits related to female fertility, production, and growth. The identified 25 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (P <1×106) are associated with age at first calving (AFC), age at first service (AFS), period from calving to 1st Artifical Insemination (AI), service period (SP) and 6 month body weight (6M). Fifteen genetic variants overlapped with different QTL regions of reported studies. Among the associated loci, outstanding candidate genes for fertility, including AQP1, TRNAE-CUC, NRIP1, CPNE4, and VOPP1, have effect in different fertility traits. AQP1 gene is expressed in ovulatory phase and various stages of pregnancy. TRNAE-CUC gene is associated with AFC and number . of calvings after 4 years of age. Glycogen content-associated gene CPNE4 regulates muscle glycogen and is upregulated during early pregnancy. NRIP1 generegulates ovulation, corpus luteum at pregnancy, and mammary gland development. The objective is to identify potential genomic regions and genetic variants associated with economic traits and to select the most significant SNP which have positive effect on all the traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda George
- Division of Animal Genetics and Breeding, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, India.
| | - Rani Alex
- Division of Animal Genetics and Breeding, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, India
| | - Nidhi Sukhija
- Division of Animal Genetics and Breeding, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, India
| | - Komal Jaglan
- Division of Animal Genetics and Breeding, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, India
| | - Vikas Vohra
- Division of Animal Genetics and Breeding, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, India
| | - Ravi Kumar
- Division of Animal Genetics and Breeding, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, India
| | - Archana Verma
- Division of Animal Genetics and Breeding, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, India
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11
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Chen SY, Boerman JP, Gloria LS, Pedrosa VB, Doucette J, Brito LF. Genomic-based genetic parameters for resilience across lactations in North American Holstein cattle based on variability in daily milk yield records. J Dairy Sci 2023; 106:4133-4146. [PMID: 37105879 DOI: 10.3168/jds.2022-22754] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023]
Abstract
Considering the increasing challenges imposed by climate change and the need to improve animal welfare, breeding more resilient animals capable of better coping with environmental disturbances is of paramount importance. In dairy cattle, resilience can be evaluated by measuring the longitudinal occurrences of abnormal daily milk yield throughout lactation. Aiming to estimate genetic parameters for dairy cattle resilience, we collected 5,643,193 daily milk yield records on automatic milking systems (milking robots) and milking parlors across 21,350 lactations 1 to 3 of 11,787 North American Holstein cows. All cows were genotyped with 62,029 SNPs. After determining the best fitting models for each of the 3 lactations, daily milk yield residuals were used to derive 4 resilience indicators: weighted occurrence frequency of yield perturbations (wfPert), accumulated milk losses of yield perturbations (dPert), and log-transformed variance (LnVar) and lag-1 autocorrelation (rauto) of daily yield residuals. The indicator LnVar presented the highest heritability estimates (±standard error), ranging from 0.13 ± 0.01 in lactation 1 to 0.15 ± 0.02 in lactation 2; the other 3 indicators had relatively lower heritabilities across the 3 lactations (0.01-0.06). Based on bivariate analyses of each resilience indicator across lactations, stronger genetic correlations were observed between lactations 2 and 3 (0.88-0.96) than between lactations 1 and 2 or 3 (0.34-0.88) for dPert, LnVar, and rauto. For the pairwise comparisons of different resilience indicators within each lactation, dPert had the strongest genetic correlations with wfPert (0.64) and rauto (0.53) in lactation 1, whereas the correlations in lactations 2 and 3 were more variable and showed relatively high standard errors. The genetic correlation results indicated that different resilience indicators across lactations might capture additional biological mechanisms and should be considered as different traits in genetic evaluations. We also observed favorable genetic correlations of these resilience indicators with longevity and Net Merit index, but further biological validation of these resilience indicators is needed. In conclusion, this study provided genetic parameter estimates for different resilience indicators derived from daily milk yields across the first 3 lactations in Holstein cattle, which will be useful when potentially incorporating these traits in dairy cattle breeding schemes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shi-Yi Chen
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907; Farm Animal Genetic Resources Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611130, China
| | | | - Leonardo S Gloria
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
| | - Victor B Pedrosa
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
| | - Jarrod Doucette
- Agriculture Information Technology (AgIT), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
| | - Luiz F Brito
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
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12
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Prakapenka D, Liang Z, Da Y. Genome-Wide Association Study of Age at First Calving in U.S. Holstein Cows. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:7109. [PMID: 37108271 PMCID: PMC10138929 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24087109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2023] [Revised: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of age at first calving (AFC) using 813,114 first lactation Holstein cows and 75,524 SNPs identified 2063 additive effects and 29 dominance effects with p-values < 10-8. Three chromosomes had highly significant additive effects in the regions of 7.86-8.12 Mb of Chr15, 27.07-27.48 Mb and 31.25-32.11 Mb of Chr19, and 26.92-32.60 Mb of Chr23. Two of the genes in those regions were reproductive hormone genes with known biological functions that should be relevant to AFC, the sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) gene, and the progesterone receptor (PGR) gene. The most significant dominance effects were near or in EIF4B and AAAS of Chr05 and AFF1 and KLHL8 of Chr06. All dominance effects were positive overdominance effects where the heterozygous genotype had an advantage, and the homozygous recessive genotype of each SNP had a very negative dominance value. Results from this study provided new evidence and understanding about the genetic variants and genome regions affecting AFC in U.S. Holstein cows.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Yang Da
- Department of Animal Science, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA
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13
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Ahmad SF, Singh A, Gangwar M, Kumar S, Dutt T, Kumar A. Haplotype-based association study of production and reproduction traits in multigenerational Vrindavani population. Gene 2023; 867:147365. [PMID: 36918047 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2023.147365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2023] [Revised: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 03/08/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023]
Abstract
Haplotype-based association analysis promises to reveal important information regarding the effect of genetic variants on economic traits of interest. The present study aimed to evaluate the haplotype structure of Vrindavani cattle and explore the association of haplotypes with (re)production traits of economic interest. Genotyping array data of medium density (Bovine50KSNP BeadChip) on 96 randomly selected Vrindavani cows was used in the present study. Genotypes were called in GenomeStudio program while quality control was undertaken in PLINK using standard thresholds. The phenotypic traits used in the present study included age at first calving, dry days, lactation length, peak yield, total lactation milk yield, inter-calving period and service period. The haplotype structure of Vrindavani population was assessed, using a sliding window of 20 SNP with a shift of 5 SNPs at a time, in terms of the size of haplotype blocks regarding their length (in Kb) and frequency in chromosome-wise fashion. Haplotype blocks were assessed for possible association with important production and reproduction traits across three lactation cycles in Vrindavani cattle population. The first ten principal components were included in the model for haplotype-based association analysis to correct for stratification effects of assessed individuals. Multiple haplotypes were found to be associated with age at first calving, total lactation milk yield, peak yield, dry days, inter-calving period and service period. Various candidate genes were found to overlap haplotypes that were significantly associated with age at first calving (CDH18, MARCHF11, MYO10, FBXL7), total lactation milk yield (TGF, PDE1A, and COL8A1), peak yield (PPARGC1A, RCAN1, KCNE1, SMIM34 and MRPS6), dry days (CPNE4, ACAD11 and MRAS), inter-calving period (ABCG5, ABCG8 and COX7A2L) and service period (FOXL2 and PIK3CB). The putative candidate genes overlapping the significantly associated haplotypes revealed important pathways affecting the production and reproduction performance of animals. The identified genes and pathways may serve as good candidate markers to select animals for improved production and reproduction performance in future generations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheikh Firdous Ahmad
- ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly 243122, UP, India
| | - Akansha Singh
- ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly 243122, UP, India
| | - Munish Gangwar
- ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly 243122, UP, India
| | - Subodh Kumar
- ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly 243122, UP, India
| | - Triveni Dutt
- ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly 243122, UP, India
| | - Amit Kumar
- ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly 243122, UP, India.
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14
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Al Kalaldeh M, Swaminathan M, Podtar V, Jadhav S, Dhanikachalam V, Joshi A, Gibson JP. Detection of genomic regions that differentiate Bos indicus from Bos taurus ancestral breeds for milk yield in Indian crossbred cows. Front Genet 2023; 13:1082802. [PMID: 36699459 PMCID: PMC9868639 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.1082802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction: In India, crossbred cows incorporate the high production of B. taurus dairy breeds and the environmental adaptation of local B. indicus cattle. Adaptation to different environments and selection in milk production have shaped the genetic differences between B. indicus and B. taurus cattle. The aim of this paper was to detect, for milk yield of crossbred cows, quantitative trait loci (QTL) that differentiate B. indicus from B. taurus ancestry, as well as QTL that are segregating within the ancestral breeds. Methods: A total of 123,042 test-day milk records for 4,968 crossbred cows, genotyped with real and imputed 770 K SNP, were used. Breed origins were assigned to haplotypes of crossbred cows, and from that, were assigned to SNP alleles. Results: At a false discovery rate (FDR) of 30%, a large number of genomic regions showed significant effects of B. indicus versus B. taurus origin on milk yield, with positive effects coming from both ancestors. No significant regions were detected for Holstein Friesian (HF) versus Jersey effects on milk yield. Additionally, no regions for SNP alleles segregating within indigenous, within HF, and within Jersey were detected. The most significant effects, at FDR 5%, were found in a region on BTA5 (43.98-49.44 Mbp) that differentiates B. indicus from B. taurus, with an estimated difference between homozygotes of approximately 10% of average yield, in favour of B. indicus origin. Discussion: Our results indicate that evolutionary differences between B. indicus and B. taurus cattle for milk yield, as expressed in crossbred cows, occur at many causative loci across the genome. Although subject to the usual first estimation bias, some of the loci appear to have large effects that might make them useful for genomic selection in crossbreds, if confirmed in subsequent studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Al Kalaldeh
- Centre for Genetic Analysis and Applications, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia,*Correspondence: Mohammad Al Kalaldeh, ; John P. Gibson,
| | - Marimuthu Swaminathan
- BAIF Development Research Foundation and Central Research Station, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| | - Vinod Podtar
- BAIF Development Research Foundation and Central Research Station, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| | - Santoshkumar Jadhav
- BAIF Development Research Foundation and Central Research Station, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| | - Velu Dhanikachalam
- BAIF Development Research Foundation and Central Research Station, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| | - Akshay Joshi
- BAIF Development Research Foundation and Central Research Station, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| | - John P. Gibson
- Centre for Genetic Analysis and Applications, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia,*Correspondence: Mohammad Al Kalaldeh, ; John P. Gibson,
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Genomic Selection in Chinese Holsteins Using Regularized Regression Models for Feature Selection of Whole Genome Sequencing Data. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12182419. [PMID: 36139283 PMCID: PMC9495168 DOI: 10.3390/ani12182419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2022] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Genomic selection (GS) is increasingly widely used in animal breeding, owing to its high efficiency in the genetic improvement of economic traits. In China, GS has been implemented for genetic evaluation of young bulls in dairy cattle breeding programs since 2012. GS is commonly based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips. The cost of whole genome sequencing (WGS) has decreased tremendously in recent years, allowing increased studies of WGS-based GS. In this study, based on the imputed WGS data of approximately 8000 Chinese Holsteins, we investigated the performance of GS of milk production traits using the feature selection method of regularized regression. The results showed that WGS-based GS using regularized regression models and the commonly used linear mixed models achieved comparable prediction accuracies. For milk and protein yields, GS using a combination of SNPs selected with a regularized regression model and 50K SNP chip data achieved the best prediction performance, and GS using SNPs selected with a linear mixed model combined with 50K SNP chip data performed best for fat yield. The proposed method of GS based on WGS data, i.e., feature selection using regularization regression models, provides a valuable novel strategy for genomic selection. Abstract Genomic selection (GS) is an efficient method to improve genetically economic traits. Feature selection is an important method for GS based on whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data. We investigated the prediction performance of GS of milk production traits using imputed WGS data on 7957 Chinese Holsteins. We used two regularized regression models, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and elastic net (EN) for feature selection. For comparison, we performed genome-wide association studies based on a linear mixed model (LMM), and the N single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with the lowest p-values were selected (LMMLASSO and LMMEN), where N was the number of non-zero effect SNPs selected by LASSO or EN. GS was conducted using a genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) model and several sets of SNPs: (1) selected WGS SNPs; (2) 50K SNP chip data; (3) WGS data; and (4) a combined set of selected WGS SNPs and 50K SNP chip data. The results showed that the prediction accuracies of GS with features selected using LASSO or EN were comparable to those using features selected with LMMLASSO or LMMEN. For milk and protein yields, GS using a combination of SNPs selected with LASSO and 50K SNP chip data achieved the best prediction performance, and GS using SNPs selected with LMMLASSO combined with 50K SNP chip data performed best for fat yield. The proposed method, feature selection using regularization regression models, provides a valuable novel strategy for WGS-based GS.
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