title: Genome-wide association study for birth weight in Nellore cattle points to previously described orthologous genes affecting human and bovine height.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Birth weight (BW) is an economically important trait in beef cattle, and is associated with growth- and stature-related traits and calving difficulty. One region of the cattle genome, located on Bos primigenius taurus chromosome 14 (BTA14), has been previously shown to be associated with stature by multiple independent studies, and contains orthologous genes affecting human height. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) for BW in Brazilian Nellore cattle (Bos primigenius indicus) was performed using estimated breeding values (EBVs) of 654 progeny-tested bulls genotyped for over 777,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most significant SNP (rs133012258, PGC = 1.34 × 10-9), located at BTA14:25376827, explained 4.62% of the variance in BW EBVs. The surrounding 1 Mb region presented high identity with human, pig and mouse autosomes 8, 4 and 4, respectively, and contains the orthologous height genes PLAG1, CHCHD7, MOS, RPS20, LYN, RDHE2 (SDR16C5) and PENK. The region also overlapped 28 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) previously reported in literature by linkage mapping studies in cattle, including QTLs for birth weight, mature height, carcass weight, stature, pre-weaning average daily gain, calving ease, and gestation length.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study presents the first GWAS applying a high-density SNP panel to identify putative chromosome regions affecting birth weight in Nellore cattle. These results suggest that the QTLs on BTA14 associated with body size in taurine cattle (Bos primigenius taurus) also affect birth weight and size in zebu cattle (Bos primigenius indicus).
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária de Araçatuba, Univ Estadual Paulista, Araçatuba, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Yuri T
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Utsunomiya
authors.forename: Adriana S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: do Carmo
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carvalheiro
authors.forename: Haroldo H R
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Neves
authors.forename: Márcia C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Matos
authors.forename: Ludmilla B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Zavarez
authors.forename: Ana M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Pérez O'Brien
authors.forename: Johann
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sölkner
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: McEwan
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.forename: Curtis P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Van Tassell
authors.forename: Flávio S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Schenkel
authors.forename: Marcos V G B
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Laercio R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Porto Neto
authors.forename: Tad S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Sonstegard
authors.forename: José F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Garcia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001827:Body Height / Q000235:genetics*; D002417:Cattle / Q000235:genetics*; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide