Application of reproductive technologies to the improvement of dairy cattle genomic selection

Abstract

Genomic selection is a direction of breeding in which the value of an animal is predicted from DNA markers evenly covering the entire genome. This review summarizes information on modern trends in the genomic selection of dairy cattle and on application of reproductive technologies to the improvement of breeding process. The main trends in the development of genomic selection include improvement of the accuracy of breeding value estimations by combination of reference populations; use genotyping of cows in breeding programs; imputation of genotypes for absent SNPs with low marker density microarrays, and prediction of animal genotypes from the genotypes of relatives. Genomic selection can be even more profitable in combination with up-to-date reproductive biotechnologies: semen sexing, multiple ovulation and embryo transfer, ovum pick-up followed by in vitro fertilization, embryo genotyping, cloning of best breeders, etc. In programs of dairy cattle genomic selection, biotechnological procedures with gametes and embryos allow improvement of a variety of parameters determining breeding efficacy: selection intensity, accurate breeding value assessment, and generation interval. Successful methods for embryo genotyping for numerous markers after biopsy at the morula or blastocyst stage are based on whole genome amplification of embryo DNA. Eventually, these achievements will provide grounds for new approaches to the reduction of generation interval, selection of elite cows, reduction of inbreeding rate, etc.