Genome-wide Association Studies (GWAS) in Animal Breeding

Since 2004, the genome sequencing of several domesticated animals has also been completed, which makes the study of animal genomes enter a phase of rapid development. Animal breeding has also moved from the phenotypic selection stage to the molecular breeding stage. As a molecular breeding tool for animal breed improvement, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) involve rapid scanning of the complete DNA of many samples to discover genetic variants associated with specific phenotypes. With experience in animal-related R&D, BioVenic has an advanced technology platform and data analysis team that can develop customized GWAS services for our clients' different animal breeding requirements.

Advantages of GWAS

Application of GWAS to Animal Breeding

GWASs using high-density single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are a new approach with encouraging achievements in dissecting the genetic mechanisms of complex human diseases. In domestic animals, identifying causal mutations behind QTLs has been a challenge. GWAS has now been applied in the fields of livestock breeding and genetics, as an ideal technique for discovering major genes for complex traits and is a new way to study the genetic mechanisms of complex traits.

Cattles - GWAS has applications for several economically important traits in cattle, including milk yield, milk quality, fertility, growth, meat quality, and carcass traits. GWAS is also important for the analysis of diseases such as classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), bovine tuberculosis (TB), and mutations associated with bilateral deafness in cattle.

Pigs - GWAS assists in the breeding of pigs by analyzing several economically important traits such as male androgen levels, fertility traits, back fat, loin muscle area and body size, fat area, and brown coat. In addition, GWAS is also beneficial in the study of sterility in pigs.

Horses - Physical and physiological traits, particularly muscle phenotypes, are important. GWAS enables analysis of genetic regions associated with these economically important traits in horses, as well as with equine genetic disorders such as dwarfism, recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN), and lavender foal syndrome (LFS).

Sheep - GWAS enables analysis of economically important traits such as horn traits, and genetic diseases in sheep such as rickets.

Chickens - GWAS can be applied to the study of important economic traits such as abdominal fat, body weight, growth, egg production, and quality traits in chickens.

Companion Animals - GWAS research on companion animals has focused on analyzing genetic regions associated with disease, allowing analysis of genetic regions for a wide range of genetic disorders, diseases in dogs such as degenerative myelopathy (DM), canine atopic dermatitis (cAD), arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and intervertebral disc calcification and disc protrusion in dachshunds, and diseases in cats such as hypokalemia and craniofacial defects, genetic susceptibility to feline infectious peritonitis and susceptibility to diabetes.

Our Services

GWAS, as an ideal and promising tool for the study of complex traits and genetic regions, uses genome-wide sequence variation (mainly single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs), together with phenotypic and pedigree information, to perform association analysis and identify genes or regulatory elements important for the trait of interest.

• GWAS in Animal Breeding
  BioVenic's GWAS analysis can be applied to multiple types of economic animals and companion animals to meet the different needs of our customers.
• Swine
• Beef Cattle
• Dairy Cattle
• Sheep
• Goat
• Chicken
• Aquaculture
• Canine
• Feline
• Equine

• GWAS-Derived Methods
  In addition to genome-wide association studies, our company offers two other types of omics association studies.
  
  • Transcriptome-wide Association Studies (TWAS) in Animal Breeding - use transcriptional regulation as a mediator between genetic variation and phenotype, converting individual genetic variation-phenotype associations into gene/transcript-phenotype associations.
  • Microbiome-wide Association Studies (MWAS) in Animal Breeding - make it possible to analyze the interactions between complex animal traits and microbial signature communities in different body parts.

Workflow of GWAS

Workflow of GWAS
Sample Collection and Preparation	Sample Requirement DNA Extraction and Purification Primer Design and PCR
DNA Library Construction	Extraction of sample genomes and production of DNA libraries.
Genotyping	Genotyping based on molecular hybridization, DNA amplification, and DNA sequencing techniques.
Phenotyping	Collection and documentation of different phenotypic trait values.
Data Analysis	Reference Genome Mapping
	Detection Annotation	Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs) Insertions and Deletions (InDels) Copy Number Variations (CNVs) Structure Variations (SVs)
	Data Analysis	Phylogenetic Tree Construction Principal Component Analysis (PCA) Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) Analysis Trait Association Analysis Functional Annotation Monomorphic Map Construction

Want to Learn More?

BioVenic is a pioneer in animal-related research and development. We have advanced instrumentation and an experienced data analysis team to provide quality GWAS-related animal breeding services to our clients. We develop personalized and optimal solutions to facilitate your project. If you are interested in our services, please contact us and tell us more about your project.