Prioritizing candidate genes for fertility in dairy cows using gene-based analysis, functional annotation and differential gene expression.

ABSTRACT:

Background

An unfavorable genetic correlation between milk production and fertility makes simultaneous improvement of milk production and fertility difficult in cattle breeding. Rapid genetic improvement in milk production traits in dairy cattle has been accompanied by decline in cow fertility. The genetic basis of this correlation remains poorly understood. Expanded reference populations and large sets of sequenced animals make genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with imputed markers possible for large populations and thereby studying genetic architecture of complex traits.

Results

In this study, we associated 15,551,021 SNPs with female fertility index in 5038 Nordic Holstein cattle. We have identified seven quantitative trait loci (QTL) on six chromosomes in cattle. Al

SUBMITTER: Cai Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6444876 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature