Epigenetic Regulation of Milk Production in Dairy Cows

Singh, Kuljeet; Erdman, R.A.; Swanson, K.M.; Molenaar, Adrian; Maqbool, Nauman J.; Wheeler, Thomas T.; Arias, J.; Quinn-Walsh, Erin C.; Stelwagen, K.

doi:10.1007/s10911-010-9164-2

Cited by 94 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 121 publications

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“…In addition, there is emerging evidence of the long-term impact of environmental perturbations on offspring phenotype (Gicquel et al, 2008;Singh et al, 2010). Epigenetic effects are changes in gene expression caused by DNA and histone modifications, which are responsible for modulation of regulatory genes, without changing the DNA sequence (Wolffe and Guschin, 2000;Bird, 2002).…”

Section: Permanent Environment Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Additive genetic, non-additive genetic and permanent environmental effects for female reproductive performance in seasonal calving dairy females

Kelleher¹,

Buckley²,

Evans³

et al. 2016

Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research

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Excellent reproductive performance (i.e. 365-day calving interval) is paramount to herd profit in seasonal-calving dairy systems. Reproductive targets are currently not being achieved in Irish dairy herds. Furthermore, most research on the genetics of reproductive performance in dairy cattle has focused primarily on lactating cows and relatively few studies have attempted to quantify the genetic contribution to differences in reproductive performance in nulliparae. The objective of the present study was to estimate the contribution of both the additive and non-additive genetic components, as well as the permanent environmental component, to phenotypic variation in the reproductive traits in nulliparous, primiparous and multiparous seasonal-calving dairy females. Reproductive phenotypes were available on up to 202,525 dairy females. Variance components were estimated using (repeatability where appropriate) linear animal mixed models; fixed effects included in the mixed models were contemporary group, parity (where appropriate), breed proportion, inter-breed specific heterosis coefficients and inter-breed specific recombination loss coefficients. Heritability of the reproductive traits ranged from 0.004 (pregnancy rate to first service) to 0.17 (age at first service in nulliparae), while repeatability estimates for the reproductive traits in cows ranged from 0.01 (calving interval) to 0.11 (pregnant in the first 42 days of the breeding season). Breed-specific heterosis regression coefficients suggest that, relative to the parental mean, a first-cross Holstein–Jersey crossbred was almost 7 days younger at first calving, had a 9-day shorter calving interval, a 6 percentage unit greater pregnancy rate in the first 42 days of the breeding season and a 3 percentage unit greater survival rate to next lactation. Heifer calving rate traits were strongly genetically correlated with age at first calving (–0.97 to –0.66) and calving rate in the first 42 days of the calving season for first parity cows (0.77 to 0.56), but genetic correlations with other cow reproductive traits were weak and inconsistent. Calving interval was strongly genetically correlated with the majority of the cow traits; 56%, 40%, and 92% of the genetic variation in calving interval was explained by calving to the first service interval, number of services and pregnant in the first 42 days of the breeding season, respectively. Permanent environmental correlations between the reproductive performance traits were generally moderate to strong. The existence of contributions from non-additive genetic and permanent environmental effects to phenotypic differences among cows suggests the usefulness of such information to rank cows on future expected performance; this was evidenced by a stronger correlation with future reproductive performance for an individual cow index that combined additive genetic, non-additive genetic and permanent environmental effects compared to an index based solely on additive genetic effects (i.e. estimated breeding values).

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Section: Permanent Environment Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Additive genetic, non-additive genetic and permanent environmental effects for female reproductive performance in seasonal calving dairy females

Kelleher¹,

Buckley²,

Evans³

et al. 2016

Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research

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“…Epigenetic modification, including DNA methylation, has been studied recently to explain the impact of mastitis on milk production. DNA methylation, in addition to being a stable epigenetic event, may also play an acute regulatory role in gene transcription (Singh et al 2010). Increase in the number of mastitis episodes and decrease in interval between first calving and mastitis increased SC with no apparent impact on the DO.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of mastitis during the first lactation on production and reproduction performance of Holstein cows

Moussavi

Mesgaran

Gilbert

2012

Trop Anim Health Prod

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of postpartum mastitis between first calving and subsequent conception on production and reproduction performance as well as culling of Holstein cows. A data set of 9,183 first lactation cows was used. Results showed that the first cumulative 100 days' milk production and the milk yield standardized to 305 days were affected by the interval from calving to first mastitis (P<0.05). Cows with one episode of mastitis produced more milk than those with repeated episodes of mastitis (P < 0.01). Increase in the number of mastitis episodes and also decrease in interval between first calving and mastitis increased services per conception (P<0.001). Mastitis episode and the interval between calving and first mastitis had no apparent impact on the calving to conception interval (P>0.05). Calving year, calving difficulty score, and cumulative first 60 days milk production had significant impacts on mastitis risk (P<0.05). The interval from calving to the first incidence of mastitis decreased over the period studied (P<0.001). Productive life tended to be decreased due to mastitis (P00.07). Survival analysis showed a significant difference between the lengths of productive life for cows with different intervals from calving to first mastitis (P<0.01). The results demonstrated that clinical mastitis between first calving and conception reduced production and reproduction performance with an increase in chance of culling.

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“…Grossniklaus et al, 2013;Heard and Martienssen, 2014;Blake and Watson, 2016). Despite the limited number of epigenetic studies in dairy cattle, they have covered milk production (Singh et al, 2010), reproduction (Sun et al, 2013;Walker et al, 2013;Saadi et al, 2017;O'Doherty et al, 2014), ageing (Green et al, 2015), and health (e.g. Green and Kerr, 2014;Doherty et al, 2016).…”

Section: Methylation and Gene Expression Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A considerable proportion of unexplained phenotypic variation in dairy cattle milk production could be attributed to epigenetic regulation (Singh et al, 2010). Diverse environmental factors and management practices such as nutrition, milk frequency, photoperiod, udder health, and hormonal and local effectors may influence the number of mammary epithelial cells, which affects milk production in dairy cattle.…”

Section: Methylation and Gene Expression Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invited review: Reproductive and genomic technologies to optimize breeding strategies for genetic progress in dairy cattle

Fleming¹,

Abdalla²,

Maltecca

et al. 2018

Arch. Anim. Breed.

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Abstract. Dairy cattle breeders have exploited technological advances that have emerged in the past in regards to reproduction and genomics. The implementation of such technologies in routine breeding programs has permitted genetic gains in traditional milk production traits as well as, more recently, in low-heritability traits like health and fertility. As demand for dairy products increases, it is important for dairy breeders to optimize the use of available technologies and to consider the many emerging technologies that are currently being investigated in various fields. Here we review a number of technologies that have helped shape dairy breeding programs in the past and present, along with those potentially forthcoming. These tools have materialized in the areas of reproduction, genotyping and sequencing, genetic modification, and epigenetics. Although many of these technologies bring encouraging opportunities for genetic improvement of dairy cattle populations, their applications and benefits need to be weighed with their impacts on economics, genetic diversity, and society.

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Epigenetic Regulation of Milk Production in Dairy Cows

Cited by 94 publications

References 121 publications

Additive genetic, non-additive genetic and permanent environmental effects for female reproductive performance in seasonal calving dairy females

Additive genetic, non-additive genetic and permanent environmental effects for female reproductive performance in seasonal calving dairy females

Effect of mastitis during the first lactation on production and reproduction performance of Holstein cows

Invited review: Reproductive and genomic technologies to optimize breeding strategies for genetic progress in dairy cattle

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