PLAG1 and NCAPG‐LCORL in livestock

Abstract

A recent progress on stature genetics has revealed simple genetic architecture in livestock animals in contrast to that in humans. PLAG1 and/or NCAPG‐LCORL, both of which are known as a locus for adult human height, have been detected for association with body weight/height in cattle and horses, and for selective sweep in dogs and pigs. The findings indicate a significant impact of these loci on mammalian growth or body size and usefulness of the natural variants for selective breeding. However, association with an unfavorable trait, such as late puberty or risk for a neuropathic disease, was also reported for the respective loci, indicating an importance to discriminate between causality and association. Here I review the recent findings on quantitative trait loci (QTL) for stature in livestock animals, mainly focusing on the PLAG1 and NCAPG‐LCORL loci. I also describe our recent efforts to identify the causative variation for the third major locus for carcass weight in Japanese Black cattle.

Variation in recombination rate and its genetic determinism in sheep (Ovis Aries) populations from combining multiple genome-wide datasets

“…Out of the four remaining outlying windows, three had a low historical recombination rate but did not have particularly extreme meiotic recombination rates, so that the effect of shrinkage is not likely to explain the discrepancy between meiotic and historical recombination rates. Indeed, these three regions corresponded to previously identified selection signatures in sheep: a region on chromosome 6 spanning 2 intervals between 36 and 38 megabases contains the ABCG2 gene, associated to milk production (Cohen-Zinder et al 2005) , and the LCORL gene associated to stature (recently reviewed in (Takasuga 2015) ). This region has been shown to have been selected in the Lacaune breed (Fariello et al 2014;Rochus et al 2017) ; a region spanning one interval on chromosome 10, between 29 and 30 megabases contains the RXFP2 gene, associated to polledness and horn phenotypes (Susan E. Johnston et al 2013) and found to be under selection in many sheep breeds (Fariello et al 2014) ; and a region on chromosome 13 between 63 and 64 megabases that contains the ASIP gene responsible for coat color phenotypes in many breeds of sheep (Norris and Whan 2008) , again previously demonstrated to have been under selection.…”

A genomic map of climate adaptation in Mediterranean cattle breeds

“…Hence, six genomic regions among the nine harbouring evidence of adaptive differentiation did not contain any markers associated with climate. In particular, Region #4 that contains the genes NCAPG and LCORL associated with body weight and height (Takasuga, ) and Region #9 surrounding the coloration locus MC1R were previously identified in other cattle breeds as under selection (Flori et al, ; Gautier, ; Gutierrez‐Gil, Arranz, & Wiener, ; Qanbari et al, ; Xu et al, ), or associated with morphology and pigmentation scores, respectively (Gautier, ).…”

“…Hence, six genomic regions among the nine harbouring evidence of adaptive differentiation did not contain any markers associated with climate. In particular, Region #4 that contains the genes NCAPG and LCORL associated with body weight and height (Takasuga, 2016) and Region #9 surrounding the coloration locus MC1R were previously identified in other cattle breeds as under selection Gautier, 2015;Gutierrez-Gil, Arranz, & Wiener, 2015;Qanbari et al, 2014;Xu et al, 2015), or associated with morphology and pigmentation scores, respectively (Gautier, 2015). (Bradley, MacHugh, Cunningham, & Loftus, 1996;Ho et al, 2008), have been subjected for a longer time to tropical and arid conditions and are now well adapted to these specific conditions while African taurine, which diverged from European taurine several thousand years ago (Bradley et al, 1996;Stock & Gifford-Gonzalez, 2013), are also well adapted to tropical humid climate.…”

Multimarker and rare variants genomewide association studies for bone weight in Simmental cattle

“…Some of our results ( LCORL and LAP3 ) confirmed previously reported associations with genes related to bone weight. NCAPG / LCORL region, which has been reported repeatedly, is a famous region associated with growth traits and carcass traits in either cattle or horses (Takasuga, ). In addition, LAP3 has also been reported associated with multiple growth traits and carcass traits in cattle.…”