Optimizing genetic diversity in Australian Holsteins and Jerseys: A comparative analysis of whole-genome and regional inbreeding depression effects.

Homozygosity, which can arise from several genetic mechanisms including inbreeding, is frequently observed in the offspring of related parents. This inbreeding can lead to a reduced performance, due to a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. This study assessed inbreeding depression using whole genome and regional approaches in first-lactation Australian Holsteins and Jerseys, involving approximately 33,000 Holstein and 7,000 Jersey cows born between 2000 and 2017.

A large, multi-site lipidomic investigation of parity and aging in dairy cows.

Efforts to optimize the longevity of dairy cows are hindered by the increased risk of adverse health events, culling or dying on farm with increased parity. Lipidomics provides a platform to help identify important biomarkers and biological pathways associated with increased parity and associated aging. A large, multi-site (15 pasture-based, 15 TMR farms) cross-sectional study collected plasma samples from nonlactating, late pregnant, 'dry' cow (696 cows, ~27 d prepartum) and peak-milk cows (796 cows, ~58 DIM) in a disproportionate stratified (parity: 0, 1, 2, > 2 for dry cows; 1, 2, 3, > 3 for peak-milk cows) random sampling frame.

Expansion limits of meshed split-thickness skin grafts.

Split-thickness skin grafts are widely used to treat chronic wounds. Procedure design requires surgeons to predict how much a patch of the patient's own skin expands when it is meshed with rows of slits and stretched over a larger wound area. Accurate prediction of graft expansion remains a challenge, with current models overestimating the actual expansion, leading to suboptimal outcomes.

Imputation accuracy and carrier frequency of deleterious recessive defects in Australian dairy cattle.

Widespread genotyping has enabled the identification of putative recessive mutations that affect fertility through early embryonic fetal loss, or that compromise neonate or calf viability. The use of artificial insemination in the global dairy population can rapidly spread these harmful mutations, and testing for multiple mutations can become relatively expensive if not all tests are available on the same SNP panel. However, it is possible to provide heifer and cow predicted carrier status to farmers at no additional cost if the animals are genotyped with a standard SNP panel.

Allele-specific binding variants causing ChIP-seq peak height of histone modification are not enriched in expression QTL annotations.

Background: Genome sequence variants affecting complex traits (quantitative trait loci, QTL) are enriched in functional regions of the genome, such as those marked by certain histone modifications. These variants are believed to influence gene expression. However, due to the linkage disequilibrium among nearby variants, pinpointing the precise location of QTL is challenging.