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Yuan Z, Sunduimijid B, Xiang R, Behrendt R, Knight MI, Mason BA, Reich CM, Prowse-Wilkins C, Vander Jagt CJ, Chamberlain AJ, MacLeod IM, Li F, Yue X, Daetwyler HD. Expression quantitative trait loci in sheep liver and muscle contribute to variations in meat traits. Genet Sel Evol 2021; 53:8. [PMID: 33461502 PMCID: PMC7812657 DOI: 10.1186/s12711-021-00602-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 01/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Variants that regulate transcription, such as expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL), have shown enrichment in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for mammalian complex traits. However, no study has reported eQTL in sheep, although it is an important agricultural species for which many GWAS of complex meat traits have been conducted. Using RNA sequence data produced from liver and muscle from 149 sheep and imputed whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), our aim was to dissect the genetic architecture of the transcriptome by associating sheep genotypes with three major molecular phenotypes including gene expression (geQTL), exon expression (eeQTL) and RNA splicing (sQTL). We also examined these three types of eQTL for their enrichment in GWAS of multi-meat traits and fatty acid profiles. Results Whereas a relatively small number of molecular phenotypes were significantly heritable (h2 > 0, P < 0.05), their mean heritability ranged from 0.67 to 0.73 for liver and from 0.71 to 0.77 for muscle. Association analysis between molecular phenotypes and SNPs within ± 1 Mb identified many significant cis-eQTL (false discovery rate, FDR < 0.01). The median distance between the eQTL and transcription start sites (TSS) ranged from 68 to 153 kb across the three eQTL types. The number of common variants between geQTL, eeQTL and sQTL within each tissue, and the number of common variants between liver and muscle within each eQTL type were all significantly (P < 0.05) larger than expected by chance. The identified eQTL were significantly (P < 0.05) enriched in GWAS hits associated with 56 carcass traits and fatty acid profiles. For example, several geQTL in muscle mapped to the FAM184B gene, hundreds of sQTL in liver and muscle mapped to the CAST gene, and hundreds of sQTL in liver mapped to the C6 gene. These three genes are associated with body composition or fatty acid profiles. Conclusions We detected a large number of significant eQTL and found that the overlap of variants between eQTL types and tissues was prevalent. Many eQTL were also QTL for meat traits. Our study fills a gap in the knowledge on the regulatory variants and their role in complex traits for the sheep model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zehu Yuan
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Grassland Agriculture Engineering Center, Ministry of Education; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, People's Republic of China.,Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia.,Institutes of Agricultural Science and Technology Development (Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture & Agri-Product Safety), Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225000, People's Republic of China
| | - Bolormaa Sunduimijid
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
| | - Ruidong Xiang
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia.,Faculty of Veterinary & Agricultural Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
| | - Ralph Behrendt
- Agriculture Victoria, Hamilton Centre, Hamilton, VIC, 3300, Australia
| | - Matthew I Knight
- Agriculture Victoria, Hamilton Centre, Hamilton, VIC, 3300, Australia
| | - Brett A Mason
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
| | - Coralie M Reich
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
| | - Claire Prowse-Wilkins
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
| | - Christy J Vander Jagt
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
| | - Amanda J Chamberlain
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
| | - Iona M MacLeod
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia
| | - Fadi Li
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Grassland Agriculture Engineering Center, Ministry of Education; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiangpeng Yue
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Grassland Agriculture Engineering Center, Ministry of Education; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, People's Republic of China.
| | - Hans D Daetwyler
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia. .,School of Applied Systems Biology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia.
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Richardson CM, Sunduimijid B, Amer P, van den Berg I, Pryce JE. A method for implementing methane breeding values in Australian dairy cattle. Anim Prod Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1071/an21055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Context
There has been a lot of interest in recent years in developing estimated breeding values (EBVs) to reduce methane emissions from the livestock sector. However, while a major limitation is the availability of high-quality methane phenotypes measured on individual animals required to develop these EBVs, it has been recognised that selecting for improved efficiency of milk production, longevity, feed efficiency and fertility may be an effective strategy to genetically reduce methane emissions in dairy cows.
Aim
Applying carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq) weights to these EBVs, we hypothesise that it is possible to develop a genetic tool to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG).
Methods
We calculated the effect of an EBV unit change in each trait in the Balanced Performance Index on CO2-eq emissions per cow per year. The estimated environmental weights were used to calculate a prototype index of CO2-eq emissions. The final set of EBVs selected for inclusion in the GHG subindex were milk volume, fat yield and protein yield, survival and feed saved, as these traits had an independent effect on emissions. Feed saved is the Australian feed efficiency trait. A further modification was to include a direct methane trait in the GHG subindex, which is a more direct genomic evaluation of methane estimated from measured methane data, calculated as the difference between actual and predicted emissions, for example, a residual methane EBV.
Key results
The accuracy of the GHG subindex (excluding residual methane EBV) is ~0.50, calculated as the correlation between the index and gross methane (using 3-day mean gross methane phenotypes corrected for fixed effects, such as batch and parity and adjusting for the heritability). The addition of the residual methane EBV had a minimal effect with a correlation of 0.99 between the indexes. This was likely to be due to limited availability of methane phenotypes, resulting in residual methane EBVs with low reliabilities.
Conclusions
We expect that as more methane data becomes available and the accuracy of the residual methane trait increases, the two GHG subindexes will become differentiated. When the GHG subindex estimates are applied to bull EBVs, it can be seen that selecting for bulls that are low emitters of GHG can be achieved with a small compromise in the BPI of ~20 BPI units (standard deviation of BPI = 100).
Implications
Therefore, selection for more sustainable dairy cattle, both economic and environmental, may be promptly implemented until sufficient data are collected on methane.
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Beynon SE, Slavov GT, Farré M, Sunduimijid B, Waddams K, Davies B, Haresign W, Kijas J, MacLeod IM, Newbold CJ, Davies L, Larkin DM. Population structure and history of the Welsh sheep breeds determined by whole genome genotyping. BMC Genet 2015; 16:65. [PMID: 26091804 PMCID: PMC4474581 DOI: 10.1186/s12863-015-0216-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2014] [Accepted: 05/13/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background One of the most economically important areas within the Welsh agricultural sector is sheep farming, contributing around £230 million to the UK economy annually. Phenotypic selection over several centuries has generated a number of native sheep breeds, which are presumably adapted to the diverse and challenging landscape of Wales. Little is known about the history, genetic diversity and relationships of these breeds with other European breeds. We genotyped 353 individuals from 18 native Welsh sheep breeds using the Illumina OvineSNP50 array and characterised the genetic structure of these breeds. Our genotyping data were then combined with, and compared to, those from a set of 74 worldwide breeds, previously collected during the International Sheep Genome Consortium HapMap project. Results Model based clustering of the Welsh and European breeds indicated shared ancestry. This finding was supported by multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS), which revealed separation of the European, African and Asian breeds. As expected, the commercial Texel and Merino breeds appeared to have extensive co-ancestry with most European breeds. Consistently high levels of haplotype sharing were observed between native Welsh and other European breeds. The Welsh breeds did not, however, form a genetically homogeneous group, with pairwise FST between breeds averaging 0.107 and ranging between 0.020 and 0.201. Four subpopulations were identified within the 18 native breeds, with high homogeneity observed amongst the majority of mountain breeds. Recent effective population sizes estimated from linkage disequilibrium ranged from 88 to 825. Conclusions Welsh breeds are highly diverse with low to moderate effective population sizes and form at least four distinct genetic groups. Our data suggest common ancestry between the native Welsh and European breeds. These findings provide the basis for future genome-wide association studies and a first step towards developing genomics assisted breeding strategies in the UK. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-015-0216-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E Beynon
- Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, UK.
| | - Gancho T Slavov
- Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, UK.
| | - Marta Farré
- Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, UK. .,Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Royal College Street, London, NW1 0TU, UK.
| | - Bolormaa Sunduimijid
- Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia.
| | - Kate Waddams
- Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, UK.
| | - Brian Davies
- Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, UK.
| | - William Haresign
- Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, UK.
| | - James Kijas
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, QLD, 4067, Australia.
| | - Iona M MacLeod
- Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia.
| | - C Jamie Newbold
- Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, UK.
| | - Lynfa Davies
- Hybu Cig Cymru, Meat Promotion Wales, Tŷ Rheidol, Parc Merlin, Aberystwyth, SY23 3FF, UK.
| | - Denis M Larkin
- Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, UK. .,Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Royal College Street, London, NW1 0TU, UK.
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