The Bos taurus–Bos indicus balance in fertility and milk related genes

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181930
• Publication Date: 2017-08-01T17:25:09Z
• Authors: Parthan Kasarapu; Laercio R. Porto-...; Marina R. S. Fortes; Sigrid A. Lehnert; Mauricio A. Mudadu; Luiz Coutinho; Luciana Regitano; Andrew George; Antonio Reverter
• Keywords: Zebu; SNP

Numerical approaches to high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are often employed independently address individual questions. We linked independent in a bioinformatics pipeline for further insight. The driven by heterozygosity and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) analyses was applied characterize Bos taurus indicus ancestry. infer gene co-heterozygosity network that regulates bovine fertility, from on 18,363 cattle with genotypes 729,068 SNP. Hierarchical clustering separated populations according weights of the first principal component were subjected Normal mixture modelling allowing estimation gene's contribution taurus-Bos axis. used deviation HWE, content association fertility traits select 1,284 genes. With this set, we developed where group genes annotated as fertility-related had significantly higher compared other functional classes genes, while associated milk production content. analysis resulted capturing novel associations relevance domestication events. report transcription factors likely regulate tropical adaptation. Our can be generalized any scenarios population structure requires scrutiny at molecular level, particularly presence priori set known impact phenotype evolutionary interest such fertility.