title: Analysis of cattle olfactory subgenome: the first detail study on the characteristics of the complete olfactory receptor repertoire of a ruminant.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mammalian olfactory receptors (ORs) are encoded by the largest mammalian multigene family. Understanding the OR gene repertoire in the cattle genome could lead to link the effects of genetic differences in these genes to variations in olfaction in cattle.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We report here a whole genome analysis of the olfactory receptor genes of Bos taurus using conserved OR gene-specific motifs and known OR protein sequences from diverse species. Our analysis, using the current cattle genome assembly UMD 3.1 covering 99.9% of the cattle genome, shows that the cattle genome contains 1,071 OR-related sequences including 881 functional, 190 pseudo, and 352 partial OR sequences. The OR genes are located in 49 clusters on 26 cattle chromosomes. We classified them into 18 families consisting of 4 Class I and 14 Class II families and these were further grouped into 272 subfamilies. Comparative analyses of the OR genes of cattle, pigs, humans, mice, and dogs showed that 6.0% (n = 53) of functional OR cattle genes were species-specific. We also showed that significant copy number variations are present in the OR repertoire of the cattle from the analysis of 10 selected OR genes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our analysis revealed the almost complete OR gene repertoire from an individual cattle genome. Though the number of OR genes were lower than in pigs, the analysis of the genetic system of cattle ORs showed close similarities to that of the pig.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Biotechnology, Konkuk University, 263 Achasan-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Korea. chankyu@konkuk.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Kyooyeol
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dinh Truong
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Minkyeung
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Se-Yeoun
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.forename: Jin-Hoi
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hailu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dadi
authors.forename: Han Geuk
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Kunho
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Taehoon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Chankyu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000235:genetics*; D056915:DNA Copy Number Variations; D020440:Gene Duplication; D016678:Genome; D008297:Male; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D018035:Receptors, Odorant / Q000235:genetics*; D012903:Smell / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018035:Receptors, Odorant