Do non-bovine domestic animals produce A2 milk?: an in silico analysis.

A2 milk is an easily digestible product since it has only A2 beta-casein. In cattle, the A1 and A2 alleles are found in the population and the A2 milk is produced from A2A2 animals. Little is known about these alleles in other domestic dairy species. The present study aims to analyze sequence of genetic material available on public databases and quantify the animals genotyped. Eight domestic species were analyzed. There is strong evidence that domestic non-bovine species only carry A2 beta-casein. The data reported here for goats already confirm it due to the large number of animals genotyped as well as buffaloes. It means that they naturally produce A2 milk and no selection must be done. Thus, the fact that A2 milk is easier to digest can be used to add value to dairy product of these species. It helps to conquer new markets. It also improves people's health and breeder profitability.

Affinity of Staphylococcal a and Streptococcal G Proteins to West Indian Manatee ( Trichechus manatus manatus) Immunoglobulins.

The West Indian manatee ( Trichechus manatus manatus), a subspecies that inhabits coastal areas of Central and South America, has been listed as a vulnerable species because of the rapid decline in its population. Commercially available immunologic reagents specific for sirenians are lacking, limiting the development of sensitive immunodiagnostic assays. We observed the affinity of the microbial proteins A and G to T. m. manatus immunoglobulins. Manatee serum pools were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the affinity intensity followed by western blotting to confirm the specific binding of proteins A and G to immunoglobulins. The ELISA demonstrated maximum affinity of both proteins until the serum dilution of 1:12,800, with a similar affinity for both proteins. Because both A and G proteins exhibited affinity to manatee immunoglobulins, they can be used to develop sensitive immunodiagnostic assays for this species, contributing to manatee conversation procedures.

Genomic association for sexual precocity in beef heifers using pre-selection of genes and haplotype reconstruction.

Reproductive traits are of the utmost importance for any livestock farming, but are difficult to measure and to interpret since they are influenced by various factors. The objective of this study was to detect associations between known polymorphisms in candidate genes related to sexual precocity in Nellore heifers, which could be used in breeding programs. Records of 1,689 precocious and non-precocious heifers from farms participating in the Conexão Delta G breeding program were analyzed. A subset of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) located in the region of the candidate genes at a distance of up to 5 kb from the boundaries of each gene, were selected from the panel of 777,000 SNPs of the High-Density Bovine SNP BeadChip. Linear mixed models were used for statistical analysis of early heifer pregnancy, relating the trait with isolated SNPs or with haplotype groups. The model included the contemporary group (year and month of birth) as fixed effect and parent of the animal (sire effect) as random effect. The fastPHASE® and GenomeStudio® were used for reconstruction of the haplotypes and for analysis of linkage disequilibrium based on r2 statistics. A total of 125 candidate genes and 2,024 SNPs forming haplotypes were analyzed. Statistical analysis after Bonferroni correction showed that nine haplotypes exerted a significant effect (p<0.05) on sexual precocity. Four of these haplotypes were located in the Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A2 gene (PAPP-A2), two in the Estrogen-related receptor gamma gene (ESRRG), and one each in the Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A gene (PAPP-A), Kell blood group complex subunit-related family (XKR4) and mannose-binding lectin genes (MBL-1) genes. Although the present results indicate that the PAPP-A2, PAPP-A, XKR4, MBL-1 and ESRRG genes influence sexual precocity in Nellore heifers, further studies are needed to evaluate their possible use in breeding programs.

Genome-Wide Association Study of Meat Quality Traits in Nellore Cattle.

The objective of this study was to identify genomic regions that are associated with meat quality traits in the Nellore breed. Nellore steers were finished in feedlots and slaughtered at a commercial slaughterhouse. This analysis included 1,822 phenotypic records of tenderness and 1,873 marbling records. After quality control, 1,630 animals genotyped for tenderness, 1,633 animals genotyped for marbling, and 369,722 SNPs remained. The results are reported as the proportion of variance explained by windows of 150 adjacent SNPs. Only windows with largest effects were considered. The genomic regions were located on chromosomes 5, 15, 16 and 25 for marbling and on chromosomes 5, 7, 10, 14 and 21 for tenderness. These windows explained 3,89% and 3,80% of the additive genetic variance for marbling and tenderness, respectively. The genes associated with the traits are related to growth, muscle development and lipid metabolism. The study of these genes in Nellore cattle is the first step in the identification of causal mutations that will contribute to the genetic evaluation of the breed.

Genome-wide association study of reproductive traits in Nellore heifers using Bayesian inference.

BACKGROUND: An important goal of Zebu breeding programs is to improve reproductive performance. A major problem faced with the genetic improvement of reproductive traits is that recording the time for an animal to reach sexual maturity is costly. Another issue is that accurate estimates of breeding values are obtained only a long time after the young bulls have gone through selection. An alternative to overcome these problems is to use traits that are indicators of the reproductive efficiency of the herd and are easier to measure, such as age at first calving. Another problem is that heifers that have conceived once may fail to conceive in the next breeding season, which increases production costs. Thus, increasing heifer's rebreeding rates should improve the economic efficiency of the herd. Response to selection for these traits tends to be slow, since they have a low heritability and phenotypic information is provided only later in the life of the animal. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are useful to investigate the genetic mechanisms that underlie these traits by identifying the genes and metabolic pathways involved. RESULTS: Data from 1853 females belonging to the Agricultural Jacarezinho LTDA were used. Genotyping was performed using the BovineHD BeadChip (777 962 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)) according to the protocol of Illumina - Infinium Assay II ® Multi-Sample HiScan with the unit SQ ™ System. After quality control, 305 348 SNPs were used for GWAS. Forty-two and 19 SNPs had a Bayes factor greater than 150 for heifer rebreeding and age at first calving, respectively. All significant SNPs for age at first calving were significant for heifer rebreeding. These 42 SNPs were next or within 35 genes that were distributed over 18 chromosomes and comprised 27 protein-encoding genes, six pseudogenes and two miscellaneous noncoding RNAs. CONCLUSIONS: The use of Bayes factor to determine the significance of SNPs allowed us to identify two sets of 42 and 19 significant SNPs for heifer rebreeding and age at first calving, respectively, which explain 11.35 % and 6.42 % of their phenotypic variance, respectively. These SNPs provide relevant information to help elucidate which genes affect these traits.

Polymorphisms in TOX and NCOA2 genes and their associations with reproductive traits in cattle.

Reproductive traits are an important component of the economic selection index for beef cattle in the tropics. Phenotypic expression of these traits occurs late because they are measured when the animals reach reproductive age. Association studies using high-density markers have been conducted to identify genes that influence certain traits. The identification of causal mutations in these genes permits the inclusion of these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in customised DNA chips to increase efficiency and validity. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to detect causal mutations in the TOX and NCOA2 genes, previously identified by genome-wide association studies of zebu cattle. DNA was extracted from 385 Nellore females and polymorphisms were investigated by polymerase chain reaction sequencing. Five polymorphisms were detected in the NCOA2 gene and four in the TOX gene that were associated with reproductive traits. Analysis of variance showed that SNP 1718 in the NCOA2 gene was significant for early pregnancy probability (P=0.02) and age at first calving (P=0.03), and SNP 2038 in the same gene was significant for days to calving (P=0.03). Studies investigating polymorphisms in other regions of the gene and in other genes should be conducted to identify causal mutations.