Genome-wide detection of selective signature in Chinese Holstein

PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e60440. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060440. Epub 2013 Mar 28.

Abstract

Selective signatures in whole genome can help us understand the mechanisms of selection and target causal variants for breeding program. In present study, we performed Extended Haplotype Homozygosity (EHH) tests to identify significant core regions harboring such signals in Chinese Holstein, and then verified the biological significance of these identified regions based on commonly-used bioinformatics analyses. Results showed a total of 125 significant regions in entire genome containing some of important functional genes such as LEP, ABCG2, CSN1S1, CSN3 and TNF based on the Gene Ontology database. Some of these annotated genes involved in the core regions overlapped with those identified in our previous GWAS as well as those involved in a recently constructed candidate gene database for cattle, further indicating these genes under positive selection maybe underlie milk production traits and other important traits in Chinese Holstein. Furthermore, in the enrichment analyses for the second level GO terms and pathways, we observed some significant terms over represented in these identified regions as compared to the entire bovine genome. This indicates that some functional genes associated with milk production traits, as reflected by GO terms, could be clustered in core regions, which provided promising evidence for the exploitability of the core regions identified by EHH tests. Findings in our study could help detect functional candidate genes under positive selection for further genetic and breeding research in Chinese Holstein.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle / genetics*
  • Female
  • Genome*
  • Genome-Wide Association Study
  • Genomics
  • Haplotypes
  • Homozygote
  • Male
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Selection, Genetic

Grants and funding

The authors appreciate the financial support provided by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program 2011AA100302), the National Natural Science Foundations of China (31272419, 30972092), the Natural Science Foundations of Beijing (6102016), New-Century Training Program Foundation for the Talents by the State Education Commission of China (NETC-10-0783), Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars of State Education Ministry. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.