Genome-wide association study for birth weight in Nellore cattle points to previously described orthologous genes affecting human and bovine height

Yuri T Utsunomiya,Marcos Vgb Da Silva,Adriana S Do Carmo,Curtis P Van Tassell,Ludmilla B Zavarez,José F Garcia,Flávio S Schenkel,Roberto Carvalheiro,Haroldo Hr Neves,Márcia C Matos,John B Cole,Laercio R Porto Neto,Ana M Pérez O’Brien,John C Mcewan,Johann Sölkner,Tad S Sonstegard

doi:10.1186/1471-2156-14-52

Abstract

BackgroundBirth weight (BW) is an economically important trait in beef cattle, and is associated with growth- and stature-related traits and calving difficulty. One region of the cattle genome, located on Bos primigenius taurus chromosome 14 (BTA14), has been previously shown to be associated with stature by multiple independent studies, and contains orthologous genes affecting human height. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) for BW in Brazilian Nellore cattle (Bos primigenius indicus) was performed using estimated breeding values (EBVs) of 654 progeny-tested bulls genotyped for over 777,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).ResultsThe most significant SNP (rs133012258, PGC = 1.34 × 10-9), located at BTA14:25376827, explained 4.62% of the variance in BW EBVs. The surrounding 1 Mb region presented high identity with human, pig and mouse autosomes 8, 4 and 4, respectively, and contains the orthologous height genes PLAG1, CHCHD7, MOS, RPS20, LYN, RDHE2 (SDR16C5) and PENK. The region also overlapped 28 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) previously reported in literature by linkage mapping studies in cattle, including QTLs for birth weight, mature height, carcass weight, stature, pre-weaning average daily gain, calving ease, and gestation length.ConclusionsThis study presents the first GWAS applying a high-density SNP panel to identify putative chromosome regions affecting birth weight in Nellore cattle. These results suggest that the QTLs on BTA14 associated with body size in taurine cattle (Bos primigenius taurus) also affect birth weight and size in zebu cattle (Bos primigenius indicus).

Highlights

Birth weight (BW) is an economically important trait in beef cattle, and is associated with growthand stature-related traits and calving difficulty
While low estimated breeding values (EBVs) for BW are associated with reduced calf viability [4] and lower growth rates [3,7], the use of sires with high Estimated breeding value (EBV) for BW on dams with small pelvic size may result in higher rates of dystocia [7] and increased perinatal mortality [8]
The number of Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) excluded due to SNP Call Rate (CRSNP) < 0.98 and Fisher’s exact test P-value for Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) < 1 × 10-5 were 122,611 (16.7%) and 13,194 (1.8%), respectively

Summary

Introduction

Birth weight (BW) is an economically important trait in beef cattle, and is associated with growthand stature-related traits and calving difficulty. While low estimated breeding values (EBVs) for BW are associated with reduced calf viability [4] and lower growth rates [3,7], the use of sires with high EBVs for BW on dams with small pelvic size may result in higher rates of dystocia [7] and increased perinatal mortality [8]. These antagonisms result from the strong association of birth weight with the body size of the calf, i.e., with the stature of the animal [2]. This relationship between BW with reproductive and growth/size traits highlights the importance of understanding the underlying genetic architecture of BW

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