Genomic regions associated with fertility traits in male and female cattle: Advances from microsatellites to high-density chips and beyond

A current challenge in genetic improvement of cattle is to identify genomic selection strategies that could work across breeds. Breed differences, scarcity of data, and lack of quantitative trait loci (QTL) validation contribute to this challenge. We conducted a review of the literature to identify...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animal reproduction science 2013-09, Vol.141 (1-2), p.1-19
Main Authors: Fortes, Marina R.S, DeAtley, Kasey L, Lehnert, Sigrid A, Burns, Brian M, Reverter, Antonio, Hawken, Rachel J, Boe-Hansen, Gry, Moore, Stephen S, Thomas, Milton G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
beef bulls
Bovine
breed differences
Cattle - genetics
Cattle - physiology
cattle breeds
cows
Female
female fertility
Fertility - genetics
Fertility - physiology
genetic improvement
Genetic markers
genomics
Male
marker-assisted selection
Microchip Analytical Procedures - veterinary
Microsatellite Repeats
production technology
Quantitative trait loci
Reproductive traits
Sex chromosomes
X chromosome
Y chromosome
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Summary:A current challenge in genetic improvement of cattle is to identify genomic selection strategies that could work across breeds. Breed differences, scarcity of data, and lack of quantitative trait loci (QTL) validation contribute to this challenge. We conducted a review of the literature to identify QTL, markers, and candidate genes that are associated with fertility across breeds to arrive at an integrated view of bovine fertility genomics and to guide the direction of future studies. This review considers both male and female fertility traits as these are economically relevant for all breeds and production systems. Regions associated with fertility traits were found in each of the 30 bovine chromosomes, confirming the complexity of these polygenic traits. Across breeds, regions on chromosomes 1, 5, 14, and 16 were associated with female reproductive traits. The X chromosome was associated with male reproductive traits in both dairy and beef bulls. It has recently been proposed that a Y chromosome anomaly may be involved in infertility in cows. Knowledge of these QTL may assist discovery of causative mutations and has the potential to improve the accuracy of genomic selection, especially across breeds of cattle.
ISSN:0378-4320
1873-2232
DOI:10.1016/j.anireprosci.2013.07.002