Abstract
A decrease in the incidence of bovine mastitis, the costliest disease in the dairy industry, can be facilitated through genetic marker-assisted selective breeding programs. Identification of genomic variants associated with mastitis resistance is an ongoing endeavor for which genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using high-density arrays provide a valuable tool. We identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Holstein dairy cattle associated with mastitis resistance in a GWAS by using a high-density SNP array. Mastitis-resistant (15) and mastitis-susceptible (28) phenotypic extremes were identified from 224 lactating dairy cows on commercial dairy farm located in Utah based on multiple criteria of mastitis resistance over an 8-month period. Twenty-seven quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for mastitis resistance were identified based on 117 SNPs suggestive of genome-wide significance for mastitis resistance (p ≤ 1 × 10−4), including 10 novel QTLs. Seventeen QTLs overlapped previously reported QTLs of traits relevant to mastitis, including four QTLs for teat length. One QTL includes the RAS guanyl-releasing protein 1 gene (RASGRP1), a candidate gene for mastitis resistance. This GWAS identifies 117 candidate SNPs and 27 QTLs for mastitis resistance using a selective genotyping approach, including 10 novel QTLs. Based on overlap with previously identified QTLs, teat length appears to be an important trait in mastitis resistance. RASGRP1, overlapped by one QTL, is a candidate gene for mastitis resistance.
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Acknowledgments
The support and resources from the Center for High Performance Computing at the University of Utah are gratefully acknowledged.
Funding
Funding for sample collection and data analysis was provided by the Utah Agriculture Experiment Station (Utah State University Extension Grants Program to Zhongde Wang) and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (Cap Ferry Agricultural Grant Fund to Zhongde Wang). The funding body had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript. The computational resources used were partially funded by the NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant 1S10OD021644-01A1.
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The use of animals in this study was approved by the Utah State University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (protocol IACUC-2282), and permission was obtained from the cattle owner. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practices at which the studies were conducted.
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Kurz, J.P., Yang, Z., Weiss, R.B. et al. A genome-wide association study for mastitis resistance in phenotypically well-characterized Holstein dairy cattle using a selective genotyping approach. Immunogenetics 71, 35–47 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-018-1088-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-018-1088-9