Assessing the Genetic Background and Selection Signatures of Huaxi Cattle Using High-Density SNP Array

Overview

Journal Animals (Basel)

Date 2021 Dec 24

PMID 34944246

Citations 8

Authors

Jun Ma

Xue Gao

Junya Li

Huijiang Gao

Zezhao Wang

Lupei Zhang

Lingyang Xu

Han Gao

Hongwei Li

Yahui Wang

Bo Zhu

Wentao Cai

Congyong Wang

Yan Chen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Huaxi cattle, a specialized beef cattle breed in China, has the characteristics of fast growth, high slaughter rate, and net meat rate, good reproductive performance, strong stress resistance, and wide adaptability. In this study, we evaluated the genetic diversity, population structure, and genetic relationships of Huaxi cattle and its ancestor populations at the genome-wide level, as well as detecting the selection signatures of Huaxi cattle. Principal component analysis (PCA) and phylogenetic analysis revealed that Huaxi cattle were obviously separated from other cattle populations. The admixture analysis showed that Huaxi cattle has distinct genetic structures among all populations at K = 4. It can be concluded that Huaxi cattle has formed its own unique genetic features. Using integrated haplotype score (iHS) and composite likelihood ratio (CLR) methods, we identified 143 and 199 potentially selected genes in Huaxi cattle, respectively, among which nine selected genes (, , , , , , , , and ) related to ion binding, muscle growth and differentiation, and immunity were detected by both methods. Our study sheds light on the unique genetic feature and phylogenetic relationship of Huaxi cattle, provides a basis for the genetic mechanism analysis of important economic traits, and guides further intensive breeding improvement of Huaxi cattle.

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