Concurrently mapping quantitative trait loci associations from multiple subspecies within hybrid populations.

Many of the world's agriculturally important plant and animal populations consist of hybrids of subspecies. Cattle in tropical and sub-tropical regions for example, originate from two subspecies, Bos taurus indicus (Bos indicus) and Bos taurus taurus (Bos taurus). Methods to derive the underlying genetic architecture for these two subspecies are essential to develop accurate genomic predictions in these hybrid populations.

Pregnancy rate per cycle is heritable and reduces with cycle in naturally mated tropically adapted beef cows.

Pregnancy in cattle is the outcome of the complex process of initiation of cycling, fertilization, maternal recognition of pregnancy and foeto-placental development. Though much is known about initiation of cycling and associated risk factors, there are virtually no data on pregnancy rate per cycle for naturally mated cattle, especially for extensively managed, tropically adapted genotypes, which this study aimed to determine. Tropical composite (Bos indicus and African Sanga crosses with Bos taurus) and Brahman cattle (n = 2,181) of known pedigree in four-year groups at four sites were mated annually for 84 days.

Use of whole-genome sequence data and novel genomic selection strategies to improve selection for age at puberty in tropically-adapted beef heifers.

Background: In tropically-adapted beef heifers, application of genomic prediction for age at puberty has been limited due to low prediction accuracies. Our aim was to investigate novel methods of pre-selecting whole-genome sequence (WGS) variants and alternative analysis methodologies; including genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) with multiple genomic relationship matrices (MGRM) and Bayesian (BayesR) analyses, to determine if prediction accuracy for age at puberty can be improved.

Methods: Genotypes and phenotypes were obtained from two research herds.

Multivariate genomic predictions for age at puberty in tropically adapted beef heifers.

Heifers that have an earlier age at puberty often have greater lifetime productivity. Age at puberty is moderately heritable so selection should effectively reduce the number of days to puberty, and improve heifer productivity and profitability as a result. However, recording age at puberty is intensive, requiring repeat ovarian scanning to determine age at first corpus luteum (AGECL).

Towards multi-breed genomic evaluations for female fertility of tropical beef cattle.

Developing accurate genomic evaluations of fertility for tropical beef cattle must deal with at least two major challenges (i) recording cow fertility traits in extensive production systems on large numbers of cows and (ii) the genomic evaluations should work across the breeds, crossbreds, and composites used in tropical beef production. Here, we assess accuracy of genomic evaluations for a trait which can be collected on a large scale in extensive conditions, corpus luteum score (CLscore), which is 1 if ovarian scanning indicates a heifer has cycled by 600 d and 0 if not, in a multi-breed population. A total of 3,696 heifers, including 979 Brahmans, 914 Droughtmasters, and 1,803 Santa Gertrudis in seven herds across 3-yr cohorts with CLscores, were genotyped for 24,211 SNPs.

Scrotal circumference of Australian beef bulls.

Normal range for scrotal circumference in Australian beef bulls was established using more than 300,000 measurements of breed, management group, age, liveweight, and scrotal circumference. The data used were derived from Australian bull breeders and two large research projects in northern Australia. Most bulls were within 250 to 750 kg liveweight and 300 to 750 days of age.