TWAS revealed significant causal loci for milk production and its composition in Murrah buffaloes.

Milk yield is the most complex trait in dairy animals, and mapping all causal variants even with smallest effect sizes has been difficult with the genome-wide association study (GWAS) sample sizes available in geographical regions with small livestock holdings such as Indian sub-continent. However, Transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) could serve as an alternate for fine mapping of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). This is a maiden attempt to identify milk production and its composition related genes using TWAS in Murrah buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis).

Exome-wide comparative analyses revealed differentiating genomic regions for performance traits in Indian native buffaloes.

In India, 20 breeds of buffalo have been identified and registered, yet limited studies have been conducted to explore the performance potential of these breeds, especially in the Indian native breeds. This study is a maiden attempt to delineate the important variants and unique genes through exome sequencing for milk yield, milk composition, fertility, and adaptation traits in Indian local breeds of buffalo. In the present study, whole exome sequencing was performed on Chhattisgarhi (n = 3), Chilika (n = 4), Gojri (n = 3), and Murrah (n = 4) buffalo breeds and after stringent quality control, 4333, 6829, 4130, and 4854 InDels were revealed, respectively.

Selection of a stable reference gene for relative copy number profiling of porcine chromosomal genes using SYBR green qPCR.

Reference gene with stable copy number is essential for normalization in qPCR based copy number assay. Present study aims to identify a suitable reference gene in pigs for qPCR based relative copy number profiling of chromosomal genes. A total of 30 crossbred pigs of both sexes were cyto-screened and gDNA was extracted from the pigs having numerically normal karyotypes.