Genome-wide association studies using haplotypes and individual SNPs in Simmental cattle

PLoS One. 2014 Oct 20;9(10):e109330. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109330. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Recent advances in high-throughput genotyping technologies have provided the opportunity to map genes using associations between complex traits and markers. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) based on either a single marker or haplotype have identified genetic variants and underlying genetic mechanisms of quantitative traits. Prompted by the achievements of studies examining economic traits in cattle and to verify the consistency of these two methods using real data, the current study was conducted to construct the haplotype structure in the bovine genome and to detect relevant genes genuinely affecting a carcass trait and a meat quality trait. Using the Illumina BovineHD BeadChip, 942 young bulls with genotyping data were introduced as a reference population to identify the genes in the beef cattle genome significantly associated with foreshank weight and triglyceride levels. In total, 92,553 haplotype blocks were detected in the genome. The regions of high linkage disequilibrium extended up to approximately 200 kb, and the size of haplotype blocks ranged from 22 bp to 199,266 bp. Additionally, the individual SNP analysis and the haplotype-based analysis detected similar regions and common SNPs for these two representative traits. A total of 12 and 7 SNPs in the bovine genome were significantly associated with foreshank weight and triglyceride levels, respectively. By comparison, 4 and 5 haplotype blocks containing the majority of significant SNPs were strongly associated with foreshank weight and triglyceride levels, respectively. In addition, 36 SNPs with high linkage disequilibrium were detected in the GNAQ gene, a potential hotspot that may play a crucial role for regulating carcass trait components.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle / anatomy & histology
  • Cattle / genetics*
  • Genome-Wide Association Study / methods*
  • Genomics
  • Haplotypes*
  • Male
  • Meat
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Cattle Breeding Innovative Research Team (cxgc-ias-03), the 12th “Five-Year” National Science and Technology Support Project (2011BAD28B04) basic research fund program, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Fundamental Research Budget Increment Project (2013ZL031), National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program 2013AA102505-4) and National Natural Science Foundations of China (31372294). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.