Dataset Information

Meta-analysis for milk fat and protein percentage using imputed sequence variant genotypes in 94,321 cattle from eight cattle breeds.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Sequence-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide high statistical power to identify candidate causal mutations when a large number of individuals with both sequence variant genotypes and phenotypes is available. A meta-analysis combines summary statistics from multiple GWAS and increases the power to detect trait-associated variants without requiring access to data at the individual level of the GWAS mapping cohorts. Because linkage disequilibrium between adjacent markers is conserved only over short distances across breeds, a multi-breed meta-analysis can improve mapping precision. RESULTS:To maximise the power to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL), we combined the results of nine within-population GWAS that used imputed sequence variant genotypes of 94,321 cattle from eight breeds, to perform a large-scale meta-analysis for fat and protein percentage in cattle. The meta-analysis detected (p???10-8) 138 QTL for fat percentage and 176 QTL for protein percentage. This was more than the number of QTL detected in all within-population GWAS together (124 QTL for fat percentage and 104 QTL for protein percentage). Among all the lead variants, 100 QTL for fat percentage and 114 QTL for protein percentage had the same direction of effect in all within-population GWAS. This indicates either persistence of the linkage phase between the causal variant and the lead variant across breeds or that some of the lead variants might indeed be causal or tightly linked with causal variants. The percentage of intergenic variants was substantially lower for significant variants than for non-significant variants, and significant variants had mostly moderate to high minor allele frequencies. Significant variants were also clustered in genes that are known to be relevant for fat and protein percentages in milk. CONCLUSIONS:Our study identified a large number of QTL associated with fat and protein percentage in dairy cattle. We demonstrated that large-scale multi-breed meta-analysis reveals more QTL at the nucleotide resolution than within-population GWAS. Significant variants were more often located in genic regions than non-significant variants and a large part of them was located in potentially regulatory regions.

SUBMITTER: van den Berg I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7339598 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Meta-analysis for milk fat and protein percentage using imputed sequence variant genotypes in 94,321 cattle from eight cattle breeds.

van den Berg Irene I Xiang Ruidong R Jenko Janez J Pausch Hubert H Boussaha Mekki M Schrooten Chris C Tribout Thierry T Gjuvsland Arne B AB Boichard Didier D Nordbø Øyvind Ø Sanchez Marie-Pierre MP Goddard Mike E ME

Genetics, selection, evolution : GSE 20200707 1

<h4>Background</h4>Sequence-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide high statistical power to identify candidate causal mutations when a large number of individuals with both sequence variant genotypes and phenotypes is available. A meta-analysis combines summary statistics from multiple GWAS and increases the power to detect trait-associated variants without requiring access to data at the individual level of the GWAS mapping cohorts. Because linkage disequilibrium between adjacent ...[more]

PMID: 32635893

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Project description:The availability of dense genotypes and whole-genome sequence variants from various sources offers the opportunity to compile large datasets consisting of tens of thousands of individuals with genotypes at millions of polymorphic sites that may enhance the power of genomic analyses. The imputation of missing genotypes ensures that all individuals have genotypes for a shared set of variants.We evaluated the accuracy of imputation from dense genotypes to whole-genome sequence variants in 249 Fleckvieh and 450 Holstein cattle using Minimac and FImpute. The sequence variants of a subset of the animals were reduced to the variants that were included on the Illumina BovineHD genotyping array and subsequently inferred in silico using either within- or multi-breed reference populations. The accuracy of imputation varied considerably across chromosomes and dropped at regions where the bovine genome contains segmental duplications. Depending on the imputation strategy, the correlation between imputed and true genotypes ranged from 0.898 to 0.952. The accuracy of imputation was higher with Minimac than FImpute particularly for variants with a low minor allele frequency. Using a multi-breed reference population increased the accuracy of imputation, particularly when FImpute was used to infer genotypes. When the sequence variants were imputed using Minimac, the true genotypes were more correlated to predicted allele dosages than best-guess genotypes. The computing costs to impute 23,256,743 sequence variants in 6958 animals were ten-fold higher with Minimac than FImpute. Association studies with imputed sequence variants revealed seven quantitative trait loci (QTL) for milk fat percentage. Two causal mutations in the DGAT1 and GHR genes were the most significantly associated variants at two QTL on chromosomes 14 and 20 when Minimac was used to infer genotypes.The population-based imputation of millions of sequence variants in large cohorts is computationally feasible and provides accurate genotypes. However, the accuracy of imputation is low in regions where the genome contains large segmental duplications or the coverage with array-derived single nucleotide polymorphisms is poor. Using a reference population that includes individuals from many breeds increases the accuracy of imputation particularly at low-frequency variants. Considering allele dosages rather than best-guess genotypes as explanatory variables is advantageous to detect causal mutations in association studies with imputed sequence variants.

Project description:BackgroundGenotyping and whole-genome sequencing data have been generated for hundreds of thousands of cattle. International consortia used these data to compile imputation reference panels that facilitate the imputation of sequence variant genotypes for animals that have been genotyped using dense microarrays. Association studies with imputed sequence variant genotypes allow for the characterization of quantitative trait loci (QTL) at nucleotide resolution particularly when individuals from several breeds are included in the mapping populations.ResultsWe imputed genotypes for 28 million sequence variants in 17,229 cattle of the Braunvieh, Fleckvieh and Holstein breeds in order to compile large mapping populations that provide high power to identify QTL for milk production traits. Association tests between imputed sequence variant genotypes and fat and protein percentages in milk uncovered between six and thirteen QTL (P < 1e-8) per breed. Eight of the detected QTL were significant in more than one breed. We combined the results across breeds using meta-analysis and identified a total of 25 QTL including six that were not significant in the within-breed association studies. Two missense mutations in the ABCG2 (p.Y581S, rs43702337, P = 4.3e-34) and GHR (p.F279Y, rs385640152, P = 1.6e-74) genes were the top variants at QTL on chromosomes 6 and 20. Another known causal missense mutation in the DGAT1 gene (p.A232K, rs109326954, P = 8.4e-1436) was the second top variant at a QTL on chromosome 14 but its allelic substitution effects were inconsistent across breeds. It turned out that the conflicting allelic substitution effects resulted from flaws in the imputed genotypes due to the use of a multi-breed reference population for genotype imputation.ConclusionsMany QTL for milk production traits segregate across breeds and across-breed meta-analysis has greater power to detect such QTL than within-breed association testing. Association testing between imputed sequence variant genotypes and phenotypes of interest facilitates identifying causal mutations provided the accuracy of imputation is high. However, true causal mutations may remain undetected when the imputed sequence variant genotypes contain flaws. It is highly recommended to validate the effect of known causal variants in order to assess the ability to detect true causal mutations in association studies with imputed sequence variants.

Project description:BackgroundWe investigated strategies and factors affecting accuracy of imputing genotypes from lower-density SNP panels (Illumina 3K, 7K, Affymetrix 15K and 25K, and evenly spaced subsets) up to one medium (Illumina 50K) and one high-density (Illumina 800K) SNP panel. We also evaluated the utility of imputed genotypes on the accuracy of genomic selection using Australian Holstein-Friesian cattle data from 2727 and 845 animals genotyped with 50K and 800K SNP chip, respectively. Animals were divided into reference and test sets (genotyped with higher and lower density SNP panels, respectively) for evaluating the accuracies of imputation. For the accuracy of genomic selection, a comparison of direct genetic values (DGV) was made by dividing the data into training and validation sets under a range of imputation scenarios.ResultsOf the three methods compared for imputation, IMPUTE2 outperformed Beagle and fastPhase for almost all scenarios. Higher SNP densities in the test animals, larger reference sets and higher relatedness between test and reference animals increased the accuracy of imputation. 50K specific genotypes were imputed with moderate allelic error rates from 15K (2.85%) and 25K (2.75%) genotypes. Using IMPUTE2, SNP genotypes up to 800K were imputed with low allelic error rate (0.79% genome-wide) from 50K genotypes, and with moderate error rate from 3K (4.78%) and 7K (2.00%) genotypes. The error rate of imputing up to 800K from 3K or 7K was further reduced when an additional middle tier of 50K genotypes was incorporated in a 3-tiered framework. Accuracies of DGV for five production traits using imputed 50K genotypes were close to those obtained with the actual 50K genotypes and higher compared to using 3K or 7K genotypes. The loss in accuracy of DGV was small when most of the training animals also had imputed (50K) genotypes. Additional gains in DGV accuracies were small when SNP densities increased from 50K to imputed 800K.ConclusionPopulation-based genotype imputation can be used to predict and combine genotypes from different low, medium and high-density SNP chips with a high level of accuracy. Imputing genotypes from low-density SNP panels to at least 50K SNP density increases the accuracy of genomic selection.

Project description:Levels of inbreeding in cattle populations have increased in the past due to the use of a limited number of bulls for artificial insemination. High levels of inbreeding lead to reduced genetic diversity and inbreeding depression. Various estimators based on different sources, e.g., pedigree or genomic data, have been used to estimate inbreeding coefficients in cattle populations. However, the comparative advantage of using full sequence data to assess inbreeding is unknown. We used pedigree and genomic data at different densities from 50k to full sequence variants to compare how different methods performed for the estimation of inbreeding levels in three different cattle breeds.Five different estimates for inbreeding were calculated and compared in this study: pedigree based inbreeding coefficient (F(PED)); run of homozygosity (ROH)-based inbreeding coefficients (F(ROH)); genomic relationship matrix (GRM)-based inbreeding coefficients (F(GRM)); inbreeding coefficients based on excess of homozygosity (F(HOM)) and correlation of uniting gametes (F(UNI)). Estimates using ROH provided the direct estimated levels of autozygosity in the current populations and are free effects of allele frequencies and incomplete pedigrees which may increase in inaccuracy in estimation of inbreeding. The highest correlations were observed between F(ROH) estimated from the full sequence variants and the F(ROH) estimated from 50k SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) genotypes. The estimator based on the correlation between uniting gametes (F(UNI)) using full genome sequences was also strongly correlated with F(ROH) detected from sequence data.Estimates based on ROH directly reflected levels of homozygosity and were not influenced by allele frequencies, unlike the three other estimates evaluated (F(GRM), F(HOM) and FU(NI)), which depended on estimated allele frequencies. F(PED) suffered from limited pedigree depth. Marker density affects ROH estimation. Detecting ROH based on 50k chip data was observed to give estimates similar to ROH from sequence data. In the absence of full sequence data ROH based on 50k can be used to access homozygosity levels in individuals. However, genotypes denser than 50k are required to accurately detect short ROH that are most likely identical by descent (IBD).

Project description:BackgroundGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed at the sequence level to identify candidate mutations that affect the expression of six major milk proteins in Montbéliarde (MON), Normande (NOR), and Holstein (HOL) dairy cattle. Whey protein (α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin) and casein (αs1, αs2, β, and κ) contents were estimated by mid-infrared (MIR) spectrometry, with medium to high accuracy (0.59 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.92), for 848,068 test-day milk samples from 156,660 cows in the first three lactations. Milk composition was evaluated as average test-day measurements adjusted for environmental effects. Next, we genotyped a subset of 8080 cows (2967 MON, 2737 NOR, and 2306 HOL) with the BovineSNP50 Beadchip. For each breed, genotypes were first imputed to high-density (HD) using HD single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotypes of 522 MON, 546 NOR, and 776 HOL bulls. The resulting HD SNP genotypes were subsequently imputed to the sequence level using 27 million high-quality sequence variants selected from Run4 of the 1000 Bull Genomes consortium (1147 bulls). Within-breed, multi-breed, and conditional GWAS were performed.ResultsThirty-four distinct genomic regions were identified. Three regions on chromosomes 6, 11, and 20 had very significant effects on milk composition and were shared across the three breeds. Other significant effects, which partially overlapped across breeds, were found on almost all the autosomes. Multi-breed analyses provided a larger number of significant genomic regions with smaller confidence intervals than within-breed analyses. Combinations of within-breed, multi-breed, and conditional analyses led to the identification of putative causative variants in several candidate genes that presented significant protein-protein interactions enrichment, including those with previously described effects on milk composition (SLC37A1, MGST1, ABCG2, CSN1S1, CSN2, CSN1S2, CSN3, PAEP, DGAT1, AGPAT6) and those with effects reported for the first time here (ALPL, ANKH, PICALM).ConclusionsGWAS applied to fine-scale phenotypes, multiple breeds, and whole-genome sequences seems to be effective to identify candidate gene variants. However, although we identified functional links between some candidate genes and milk phenotypes, the causality between candidate variants and milk protein composition remains to be demonstrated. Nevertheless, the identification of potential causative mutations that underlie milk protein composition may have immediate applications for improvements in cheese-making.

Project description:BackgroundGenetic progress for fertility and reproduction traits in dairy cattle has been limited due to the low heritability of most indicator traits. Moreover, most of the quantitative trait loci (QTL) and candidate genes associated with these traits remain unknown. In this study, we used 5.6 million imputed DNA sequence variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 18 fertility and reproduction traits in Holstein cattle. Aiming to identify pleiotropic variants and increase detection power, multiple-trait analyses were performed using a method to efficiently combine the estimated SNP effects of single-trait GWAS based on a chi-square statistic.ResultsThere were 87, 72, and 84 significant SNPs identified for heifer, cow, and sire traits, respectively, which showed a wide and distinct distribution across the genome, suggesting that they have relatively distinct polygenic nature. The biological functions of immune response and fatty acid metabolism were significantly enriched for the 184 and 124 positional candidate genes identified for heifer and cow traits, respectively. No known biological function was significantly enriched for the 147 positional candidate genes found for sire traits. The most important chromosomes that had three or more significant QTL identified are BTA22 and BTA23 for heifer traits, BTA8 and BTA17 for cow traits, and BTA4, BTA7, BTA17, BTA22, BTA25, and BTA28 for sire traits. Several novel and biologically important positional candidate genes were strongly suggested for heifer (SOD2, WTAP, DLEC1, PFKFB4, TRIM27, HECW1, DNAH17, and ADAM3A), cow (ANXA1, PCSK5, SPESP1, and JMJD1C), and sire (ELMO1, CFAP70, SOX30, DGCR8, SEPTIN14, PAPOLB, JMJD1C, and NELL2) traits.ConclusionsThese findings contribute to better understand the underlying biological mechanisms of fertility and reproduction traits measured in heifers, cows, and sires, which may contribute to improve genomic evaluation for these traits in dairy cattle.

Dataset Information

Meta-analysis for milk fat and protein percentage using imputed sequence variant genotypes in 94,321 cattle from eight cattle breeds.

Publications

Meta-analysis for milk fat and protein percentage using imputed sequence variant genotypes in 94,321 cattle from eight cattle breeds.

Similar Datasets

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