New loci and neuronal pathways for resilience to heat stress in cattle.

ABSTRACT: While understanding the genetic basis of heat tolerance is crucial in the context of global warming's effect on humans, livestock, and wildlife, the specific genetic variants and biological features that confer thermotolerance in animals are still not well characterized. We used dairy cows as a model to study heat tolerance because they are lactating, and therefore often prone to thermal stress. The data comprised almost 0.5 million milk records (milk, fat, and proteins) of 29,107 Australian Holsteins, each having around 15 million imputed sequence variants. Dairy animals often reduce their milk production when temperature and humidity rise; thus, the phenotypes used to measure an individual's heat tolerance were defined as the rate of milk production decline (slope traits) with a rising t

SUBMITTER: Cheruiyot EK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8371109 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature