Whole-genome sequencing of endangered Zhoushan cattle suggests its origin and the association of MC1R with black coat colour

Lihua Jiang,Liyi Pei,Hao Pan,Chunyan Chen,Ryota Ichikawa,Atsushi Ogura,Tetsuo Kon,Ikuyo Takemura,Yoshihiro Omori,Lauden Hagai Nsobi,Hiromasa Tabata,Qiyuan Zheng

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-96896-2

Abstract

Zhoushan cattle are an endangered cattle breed in the Zhoushan islands in China. Since Zhoushan cattle have been bred in isolation, they show unique characteristics, such as dark black coat colour. However, no studies have been conducted on the genome of Zhoushan cattle. Here, we performed whole-genome sequencing of seven individuals of Zhoushan cattle and nine cattle in Wenling, geographically close to the Zhoushan islands. By integrating our data and publicly-available data, we found that Zhoushan cattle are genetically highly similar to Bos indicus cattle in south-eastern China. Furthermore, by identifying the genomic regions shared between Zhoushan cattle and Angus cattle, a Bos taurus breed, we found that the p.F195L mutation in melanocyte-stimulating hormone receptor (MC1R) could be associated with their dark black coat colour. Taken together, our results provide a valuable resource for characterising the uniqueness of Zhoushan cattle.

Highlights

Chinese cattle are distributed throughout the country and are among the most critical components of world cattle due to their large number and abundant breed types[1,2,3]
Zhoushan cattle look like both B. taurus and B. indicus; considering that Zhoushan cattle have a hump on the back, some people propose that Zhoushan cattle are B. indicus[5]
Zhoushan cattle and Angus (Fig. 5c). These results suggest that the MC1R haplotype in Zhoushan cattle is derived from B. taurus, even though the genome of Zhoushan cattle as a whole is that of B. indicus

Summary

Introduction

Chinese cattle are distributed throughout the country and are among the most critical components of world cattle due to their large number and abundant breed types[1,2,3]. Some typical breeds of B. taurus, such as Black Angus and Kobe cattle have a dark black coat. Recent genome-wide analysis of Chinese cattle revealed that B. taurus is mainly located in east China and that B. indicus is primarily located in south C hina[3]. It is fascinating to investigate whether the breed that is genetically closest to Zhoushan cattle is B. taurus or B. indicus or a hybrid thereof. Others suggest that Zhoushan cattle are B. taurus because the dewlap is less prominent, they show the dark black coat colour similar to Kobe cattle in Japan, and the Zhoushan islands are geographically close to Japan across the sea. We performed whole-genome sequencing of seven individuals of Zhoushan cattle and nine Wenling cattle individuals, which are a local breed in Wenling and show typical characteristics of B. indicus. Combined with the publicly-available genomic data of other cattle breeds, we performed population analyses with Zhoushan cattle and other domesticated cattle

Methods

Results

Conclusion