Characterization of runs of homozygosity, heterozygosity-enriched regions, and population structure in cattle populations selected for different breeding goals.

BACKGROUND: A decline in the level of genetic diversity in livestock can result in reduced response to selection, greater incidence of genetic defects, and inbreeding depression. In this context, various metrics have been proposed to assess the level of genetic diversity in selected populations. Therefore, the main goals of this study were to: 1) investigate the population structure of 16 cattle populations from 15 different pure breeds or composite populations, which have been selected for different breeds goals; and, 2) identify and compare runs of homozygosity (ROH) and heterozygosity-enriched regions (HER) based on different single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panels and whole-genome sequence data (WGS), followed by functional genomic analyses. RESULTS: A total of 24,187 ROH were found across all cattle populations, with 55% classified in the 2-4 Mb size group. Fourteen homozygosity islands were found in five populations, where four ROH islands located on BTA1, BTA5, BTA16, and BTA19 overlapped between the Brahman (BRM) and Gyr (GIR) breeds. A functional analysis of the genes found in these islands revealed candidate genes known to play a role in the melanogenesis, prolactin signaling, and calcium signaling pathways. The correlations between inbreeding metrics ranged from 0.02 to 0.95, where the methods based on homozygous genotypes (FHOM), uniting of gametes (FUNI), and genotype additive variance (FGRM) showed strong correlations among them. All methods yielded low to moderate correlations with the inbreeding coefficients based on runs of homozygosity (FROH). For the HER, 3576 runs and 26 islands, distributed across all autosomal chromosomes, were found in regions containing genes mainly related to the immune system, indicating potential balancing selection. Although the analyses with WGS did not enable detection of the same island patterns, it unraveled novel regions not captured when using SNP panel data. CONCLUSIONS: The cattle populations that showed the largest amount of ROH and HER were Senepol (SEN) and Montana (MON), respectively. Overlapping ROH islands were identified between GIR and BRM breeds, indicating a possible historical connection between the populations. The distribution and pattern of ROH and HER are population specific, indicating that different breeds have experienced divergent selection processes or different genetic processes.

Uso de sêmen refrigerado bovino: quebrando paradigmas / Colled bovine semen: breaking paradigms

A utilização do sêmen refrigerado (SR) cresce a cada dia, no entanto mais estudos são necessários para validar e viabilizar o uso em massa desta biotécnica, garantindo aumento dos índices de prenhez, quando utilizamos sêmen refrigerado comparado com o sêmen congelado de um mesmo touro. A membrana plasmática é a parte da estrutura do espermatozoide mais susceptível a modificações durante o processo de criopreservação, as quais são causadas por alterações de temperatura induzidas sobre as células (curva de resfriamento e congelamento, além do processo de pós-descongelamento), ou seja, em última análise, ocorre a diminuição da viabilidade das células, principalmente, porque a membrana espermática é submetida a rearranjos estruturais envolvendo lípideos e proteínas. Assim, quanto menor for o processamento, mais células viáveis estarão disponíveis no momento da fecundação e, consequentemente, aumentará a prenhez. Na tentativa de diminuir as perdas celulares, o uso do sêmen refrigerado ressurge com a possibilidade de aumentar a prenhez nos protocolos de IATF.(AU)

The use of cooled semen (CS) has been increase every day, however more researches are needed to validate and spread this biotech, improves pregnancy rates higher than when compared to the frozen semen of same bull. Plasma membrane is the part of the sperm structure most susceptible to modifications during the cryopreservation process caused by changes in temperature that the cell undergoes (cooling and freezing curve besides the process of post-thawing), that is, in the last analysis, there is a decrease in cell viability, mainly because the sperm membrane is submitted to structural rearrangements involving lipids and proteins. Thus, the smaller the processing, the more viable cells will be available at the time of fertilization and consequently, the pregnancy will increase. In an attempt to decrease cell losses, the use of cooled semen resurfaces with the possibility of increasing pregnancy in the IATF protocols.(AU)

Uso de sêmen refrigerado bovino: quebrando paradigmas / Colled bovine semen: breaking paradigms

A utilização do sêmen refrigerado (SR) cresce a cada dia, no entanto mais estudos são necessários para validar e viabilizar o uso em massa desta biotécnica, garantindo aumento dos índices de prenhez, quando utilizamos sêmen refrigerado comparado com o sêmen congelado de um mesmo touro. A membrana plasmática é a parte da estrutura do espermatozoide mais susceptível a modificações durante o processo de criopreservação, as quais são causadas por alterações de temperatura induzidas sobre as células (curva de resfriamento e congelamento, além do processo de pós-descongelamento), ou seja, em última análise, ocorre a diminuição da viabilidade das células, principalmente, porque a membrana espermática é submetida a rearranjos estruturais envolvendo lípideos e proteínas. Assim, quanto menor for o processamento, mais células viáveis estarão disponíveis no momento da fecundação e, consequentemente, aumentará a prenhez. Na tentativa de diminuir as perdas celulares, o uso do sêmen refrigerado ressurge com a possibilidade de aumentar a prenhez nos protocolos de IATF.

The use of cooled semen (CS) has been increase every day, however more researches are needed to validate and spread this biotech, improves pregnancy rates higher than when compared to the frozen semen of same bull. Plasma membrane is the part of the sperm structure most susceptible to modifications during the cryopreservation process caused by changes in temperature that the cell undergoes (cooling and freezing curve besides the process of post-thawing), that is, in the last analysis, there is a decrease in cell viability, mainly because the sperm membrane is submitted to structural rearrangements involving lipids and proteins. Thus, the smaller the processing, the more viable cells will be available at the time of fertilization and consequently, the pregnancy will increase. In an attempt to decrease cell losses, the use of cooled semen resurfaces with the possibility of increasing pregnancy in the IATF protocols.