Identification of 19-bp indel of the Pleomorphic Adenoma Gene 1 in Bali cattle population

Pleomorphic adenoma gene 1 (PLAG1) is a zinc finger transcription factor gene located on bovine chromosome 14 (BTA14) affecting body size and reproduction traits in cattle. The objective of this study was to identify 19-bp indel of the PLAG1 gene in Bali cattle population. A total of 96 blood samples of Bali Cattle were collected from Balai Pembibitan Ternak Unggul dan Hijauan Pakan Ternak (BPTU-HPT) Denpasar. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples and used to detect 19-bp indel of the PLAG1 gene using following primer pair 5’-TCCGAACAACAGGTGAGGGAGAAAT-3’ and 5’-CCACTTCAGG-GGTGCTCTAGGTTTG-3’. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products using DNA pool samples were sequenced to validate the PCR product and to find out novel polymorphism in Bali cattle population. The result showed that there was no variation found in Bali cattle population based on 19-bp indel of the PLAG1 gene, which is indicated by 123 bp DNA band. However, sequence analysis of the PLAG1 gene resulted in a novel single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at nucleotide number 32235 of the PLAG1 gene that changed guanine (G) to adenine (A). This novel SNP could be furthermore genotyped and it might be a potential candidate marker for body size and reproduction traits in Bali cattle.

Identification of Polymorphism within Exon 8 of Bovine HSP90AA1 Gene using PCR-SSCP Technique

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a type of molecular chaperones that aid in the recovery of stressed cells and serve as a major system for intracellular self-defense. A study was conducted during the year 2018–19 at College of Veterinary Science Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telengana State, India to find polymorphisms in exon 8 of the bovine HSP90AA1 gene in Sahiwal (n=50) and crossbred (n=50) cows. Blood samples were collected from the experimental animals and genomic DNA was isolated. Physiological parameters like body temperature and respiration rate for each animal were taken during the experimental period and the heat tolerance coefficient was calculated. The data on production and reproduction traits were obtained from the history sheets of the animals. To detect the polymorphism, a 539 bp fragment of the HSP90AA1 gene covering exon 8 was subjected to the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) technique.The PCR-SSCP of exon 8 of HSP90AA1 gene yielded two genotypic patterns AA and AB corresponding to two allelic variants with frequencies of 0.85, 0.15, 0.81 and 0.19 in Sahiwal and crossbred cows, respectively. The PCR-SSCP patterns obtained were correlated with the physiological, productive, and reproductive traits in both Sahiwal and crossbred cows. The association analysis of SSCP patterns of the exon 8 of HSP90AA1 gene revealed non-significant effect in Sahiwal cows, although the AB genotype had a significantly longer service period in crossbred cows.

Improving Gander Reproductive Efficacy in the Context of Globally Sustainable Goose Production

The goose is a popular poultry species, and in the past two decades the goose industry has become highly profitable across the globe. Ganders low reproductive performance remains a barrier to achieving high fertility and hatchability in subsequent flocks. To address the global demand for cheaper animal protein, various methodologies for improving avian (re)production should be explored. A large amount of literature is available on reproduction traits and techniques for commercial chicken breeder flocks, while research on improved reproduction in ganders has been carried out to a lesser extent. The present review aims to provide a comprehensive literature overview focusing on recent advancements/techniques used in improving gander reproductive efficacy in the context of ensuring a globally sustainable goose industry.

Using Machine Learning To Improve the Accuracy of Genomic Prediction on Reproduction Traits in Pigs

Background Recently, machine learning (ML) is becoming attractive in genomic prediction, while its superiority in genomic prediction and the choosing of optimal ML methods are needed investigation. Results In this study, 2566 Chinese Yorkshire pigs with reproduction traits records were used, they were genotyped with GenoBaits Porcine SNP 50K and PorcineSNP50 panel. Four ML methods, including support vector regression (SVR), kernel ridge regression (KRR), random forest (RF) and Adaboost.R2 were implemented. Through 20 replicates of five-fold cross-validation, the genomic prediction abilities of ML methods were explored. Compared with genomic BLUP(GBLUP), single-step GBLUP (ssGBLUP) and Bayesian method BayesHE, our results indicated that ML methods significantly outperformed. The prediction accuracy of ML methods was improved by 19.3%, 15.0% and 20.8% on average over GBLUP, ssGBLUP and BayesHE, ranging from 8.9–24.0%, 7.6–17.5% and 11.1–24.6%, respectively. In addition, ML methods yielded smaller mean squared error (MSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) in all scenarios. ssGBLUP yielded improvement of 3.7% on average compared to GBLUP, and the performance of BayesHE was close to GBLUP. Among four ML methods, SVR and KRR had the most robust prediction abilities, which yielded higher accuracies, lower bias, lower MSE and MAE, and comparable computing efficiency as GBLUP. RF demonstrated the lowest prediction ability and computational efficiency among ML methods. Conclusion Our findings demonstrated that ML methods are more efficient than traditional genomic selection methods, and it could be new options for genomic prediction.

Association of the caprine calpastatin MspI polymorphism with growth and reproduction traits in Saanen goats

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of calpastatin (CAST) MspI polymorphism on some growth and reproduction traits, including birth weight, first breeding weight, litter size, and average daily weight gain in Saanen goats. In this sense, blood samples obtained from 73 purebred female Saanen goats were used for genotyping. Genomic DNA was isolated by the phenol-chloroform method and used to determine CAST genotypes, including MM, MN, and NN, by means of the PCR-RFLP method. The population genetic parameters were estimated based on allelic distribution and the data were statistically analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) using a general linear model (GLM). Results revealed that N allele frequency was remarkably high (0.64) and the MM genotype was not present. The frequency of the heterozygous genotype was 59.62%. Concerning ANOVA results, significant differences were found between genotypes of the CAST locus concerning birth weight (P<0.05). In this respect, animals with the NN genotype were associated with higher birth weight means (2.85±0.29 kg) compared to heterozygous animals (2.53±0.24 kg). There was no significant association between the CAST marker and any of the remaining phenotypic traits evaluated. The present results suggest that focusing on this genomic region may be particularly useful in improving birth weight in goats which can be considered as an early indicator of post-weaning animal growth and survival.

Non Genetic Factors Affecting Production and Reproduction Traits of Graded Murrah Buffaloes

Background: Environmental factors play a major role and influence the economically important traits in dairy animals. The present investigation was undertaken to study the influence of season on production and reproduction traits of graded Murrah buffaloes reared under farm conditions. Methods: The data pertaining to 164 graded Murrah buffaloes was utilized to study influence of seasons on various climatic factors like maximum, minimum and mean temperature, relative humidity (morning and evening), rainfall, sunshine, wind speed, evaporation and production and reproduction traits like lactation length, lactation yield, days to attain peak yield, persistency, calving interval, birth weight and number of lactations. Result: The present investigation revealed significant effect of season on all the meteorological parameters, production and reproduction parameters studied. The correlations among meteorological parameters and production and reproduction traits were also significant.

Association of SSCP Polymorphisms of HSP70 Gene with Physiological, Production and Reproduction Performance in Sahiwal and Crossbred Cows

Background: Cellular tolerance to heat stress is mediated by heat shock proteins (HSPs). The HSPs act as molecular chaperones and are transcribed in response to stress. Among different families of these proteins, HSP70 is considered to be related to the development of temperature tolerance. Unraveling polymorphism in heat shock protein genes could be a step towards the identification of genetic markers for selecting heat-tolerant cattle. Methods: The present study was carried out in Sahiwal (n=50) and Crossbred cows (n=50) with the objective to identify polymorphisms in HSP70 gene. Two fragments (295 and 220 bp) of HSP70 gene were subjected to Polymerase Chain Reaction-Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) technique. Statistical analysis was performed to study the association of each SSCP genotype on physiological, production and reproduction traits in Sahiwal and crossbred cows using the univariate GLM model of SPSS 25. Result: The PCR-SSCP of 295 bp fragment of HSP70 gene revealed two genotypes AA and AB in Sahiwal cows and two genotypes AA and AC in crossbred cows. The association analysis revealed that genotype AA had higher peak milk yield in Sahiwal cows while the same genotype had higher total lactation milk yield, lower service period and calving interval in crossbred cows. The 220 bp fragment was found to be monomorphic in both Sahiwal and crossbred cows.

PSXV-9 Transgenerational epigenetic variance for production and reproduction traits in maternal-line pigs

Modeling epigenetic factors impacting phenotypic expression of economically important traits has become a hot-topic in the field of animal breeding due to the variability in genetic expression caused by environmental stressors (e.g., heat stress). This variability may be due, in part, to in-utero epigenomic remodeling, which has been reported to be passed from parent to offspring. We aimed to estimate transgenerational epigenetic variance for various production and reproduction traits measured in a maternal-line pig population, using a Bayesian approach. The phenotypes for production [n = 10,862; i.e., weaning weight (WW), birth weight (BW) and ultrasound-backfat thickness (BF)] and reproduction [n = 5,235, i.e., number of piglets born alive (NBA) and total number of piglets born (TB)] traits from a purebred Landrace population were provided by Smithfield Premium Genetics (NC, USA). The pedigree information traced back to 10 generations. Single-trait genetic analyses were performed using mixed models that included additive genetic, common environmental, and epigenetic random effects. The Gibbs sampler algorithm based on Markov chain Monte Carlo was used to estimate the variance components. The epigenetic relationship matrix was constructed using a recursive parameter (λ) related to the transmissibility coefficient of epigenetic markers. A grid search approach was used to define the optimal λ value (λ values ranged from 0.1 to 0.5, with an interval of 0.1). The optimal λ value was determined based on the deviance information criterion, and it was used to estimate the additive and epigenetic variances. For instance, based on preliminary results, the optimal λ value estimated for TB was 0.3 with an additive genetic variance of 0.94 (0.19 PSD) and epigenetic variance of 0.67 (0.18 PSD). The additive genetic heritability was 0.076 (0.015 PSD) and the estimated epigenetic heritability was 0.053 (0.015 PSD). This preliminary result suggests that epigenetics contribute to the non-Mendelian variability in pigs.

160 Studies of Sperm DNA Methylation Variations and Their Potential Regulations on Production and Reproduction Traits in Cattle and Pigs

Identification of inter-individual variations of sperm DNA methylation is very essential for elucidating phenotypic variation of reproduction and production traits. We had generated 28 sperm whole genome sequencing (WGBS) data from healthy individuals. We detected 46 variably methylated regions (VMRs) significantly (P &lt; 5.77 × 10−5) associated with reproduction traits. These significant VMRs were also co-localized (±10 kb) with genes related to sperm motility and reproduction, including ZFP36L1, CRISP2 and HGF. To further identify epigenomic markers associated with reproduction and production traits, we generated WGBS dada for a specific pair of monozygotic twin artificial insemination Holstein bulls with moderately different sperm qualities (Bull1 &gt; Bull2). We found 528 differentially methylated regions between the twin bulls, which spanned or overlapped with 309 differentially methylated genes (DMG). These DMG were particularly associated with reproduction, embryo development and the nervous system. To further obtain DNA methylation markers involved in the diversity of porcine reproduction and production traits due to long-term artificial selection, we profiled sperm DNA methylation of three commercial pig breeds--Duroc, Landrace and Large White. we found the hypomethylated regions (HMRs) were highly conserved among pig breeds, while 1040–1666 breed-specific HMRs were identified and associated with the QTLs of embryonic developmental and phenotypic changes. By integrating reduced representation bisulfite sequencing public data of pig testis, we further defined 1743 conservative HMRs between sperm and testis, which may play a role in spermatogenesis process. Overall, our studies demonstrated associations of sperm DNA methylation with bovine and porcine production and reproduction traits, highlighting the potential of epigenomic information in genomic improvement programs for livestock. (*: [email protected])