Short communication: Genome wide association study for gastrointestinal nematodes resistance in Bos taurus x Bos indicus crossbred cattle

摘要

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) parasitism is a very important problem on livestock production, especially in cattle, where the infections are usually subclinical making difficult the diagnosis and aggravating the losses caused by these parasites. This study aimed to identify genomic regions associated with nematode fecal egg count (FEC) in a Gir x Holstein F2 experimental population and to identify candidate genes within the quantitative trait loci (QTL) regions. The FEC phenotypes were evaluated in F2 animals during dry and rainy seasons. Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip was used to genotype the animals for single-SNP genome wide association studies. Three significant SNPs on chromosome 15 were found to be associated with FEC. From the QTL regions containing the SNPs, one functional candidate gene was identified: the myogenic differentiation 1 (MYOD1) gene, which plays an important role in the myogenesis and muscle repair. Further studies are needed to refine the QTL region identified here and to pursue additional SNPs associated to FEC trait in the Gir x Holstein genome, as well as to deeply investigate and validate the effect of this functional candidate gene.