Genome‐wide association studies for milk production traits in Valle del Belice sheep using repeated measures

Introduction: Sulfonylureas are a commonly-used class of diabetes medication that can prolong the QT-interval, which is a leading cause of drug withdrawals from the market given the possible risk of life-threatening arrhythmias. Previously, we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of sulfonylurea-genetic interactions on QT interval among 9 European-ancestry (EA) cohorts using cross-sectional data, with null results. To improve our power to identify novel drug-gene interactions, we have included repeated measures of medication use and QT interval and expanded our study to include several additional cohorts, including African-American (AA) and Hispanic-ancestry (HA) cohorts with a high prevalence of sulfonylurea use. To identify potentially differential effects on cardiac depolarization and repolarization, we have also added two phenotypes - the JT and QRS intervals, which together comprise the QT interval. Hypothesis: The use of repeated measures and expansion of our meta-analysis to include diverse ancestry populations will allow us to identify novel pharmacogenomic interactions for sulfonylureas on the ECG phenotypes QT, JT, and QRS. Methods: Cohorts with unrelated individuals used generalized estimating equations to estimate interactions; cohorts with related individuals used mixed effect models clustered on family. For each ECG phenotype (QT, JT, QRS), we conducted ancestry-specific (EA, AA, HA) inverse variance weighted meta-analyses using standard errors based on the t-distribution to correct for small sample inflation in the test statistic. Ancestry-specific summary estimates were combined using MANTRA, an analytic method that accounts for differences in local linkage disequilibrium between ethnic groups. Results: Our study included 65,997 participants from 21 cohorts, including 4,020 (6%) sulfonylurea users, a substantial increase from the 26,986 participants and 846 sulfonylureas users in the previous meta-analysis. Preliminary ancestry-specific meta-analyses have identified genome-wide significant associations (P < 5х10–8) for each ECG phenotype, and analyses with MANTRA are in progress. Conclusions: In the setting of the largest collection of pharmacogenomic studies to date, we used repeated measurements and leveraged diverse ancestry populations to identify new pharmacogenomic loci for ECG traits associated with cardiovascular risk.

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Confirmed effects of candidate variants for milk production, udder health, and udder morphology in dairy cattle

Genetics Selection Evolution ◽

10.1186/s12711-020-00575-1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Thierry Tribout ◽

Pascal Croiseau ◽

Rachel Lefebvre ◽

Anne Barbat ◽

Mekki Boussaha ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Candidate Genes ◽

Milk Production ◽

Association Studies ◽

Genome Wide Association Studies ◽

Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽

Production Traits ◽

Milk Production Traits ◽

Udder Health ◽

Gwas Approach

Abstract Background Over the last years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) based on imputed whole-genome sequences (WGS) have been used to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) and highlight candidate genes for important traits. However, in general this approach does not allow to validate the effects of candidate mutations or determine if they are truly causative for the trait(s) in question. To address these questions, we applied a two-step, within-breed GWAS approach on 15 traits (5 linked with milk production, 2 with udder health, and 8 with udder morphology) in Montbéliarde (MON), Normande (NOR), and Holstein (HOL) cattle. We detected the most-promising candidate variants (CV) using imputed WGS of 2515 MON, 2203 NOR, and 6321 HOL bulls, and validated their effects in three younger populations of 23,926 MON, 9400 NOR, and 51,977 HOL cows. Results Bull sequence-based GWAS detected 84 QTL: 13, 10, and 30 for milk production traits; 3, 0, and 2 for somatic cell score (SCS); and 8, 2 and 16 for udder morphology traits, in MON, NOR, and HOL respectively. Five genomic regions with effects on milk production traits were shared among the three breeds whereas six (2 for production and 4 for udder morphology and health traits) had effects in two breeds. In 80 of these QTL, 855 CV were highlighted based on the significance of their effects and functional annotation. The subsequent GWAS on MON, NOR, and HOL cows validated 8, 9, and 23 QTL for production traits; 0, 0, and 1 for SCS; and 4, 1, and 8 for udder morphology traits, respectively. In 47 of the 54 confirmed QTL, the CV identified in bulls had more significant effects than single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the standard 50K chip. The best CV for each validated QTL was located in a gene that was functionally related to production (36 QTL) or udder (9 QTL) traits. Conclusions Using this two-step GWAS approach, we identified and validated 54 QTL that included CV mostly located within functional candidate genes and explained up to 6.3% (udder traits) and 37% (production traits) of the genetic variance of economically important dairy traits. These CV are now included in the chip used to evaluate French dairy cattle and can be integrated into routine genomic evaluation.

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