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Title: DNA SEQUENCE DIVERSITY AND HAPLOTYPE RELATIONSHIPS AT GENE LOCI IN U.S. BEEF CATTLE POPULATIONS

Author
item Heaton, Michael - Mike

Submitted to: Journal of Animal Science Supplement
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/14/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are useful as DNA markers because they occur at a high density in U.S. cattle populations, they are genetically stable over evolutionary time scales, and they are amenable to a variety of high-throughput technologies developed from the Human Genome Project. To capture the breadth of sequence diversity in U.S. beef cattle, ,a panel of 96 cattle DNA samples was designed for automated DNA sequencing of small amplicons at gene loci. The beef breeds comprise greater than 99% of the germplasm used in the U.S. beef cattle industry, based on the number of registered progeny for each breed. This beef cattle diversity panel (MBCDP2.1) is expected to allow a 95% probability of detecting any allele with a frequency greater than 0.016 in the group. Because the information content of an individual SNP is inherently low (biallelic), the set of SNP alleles residing on a specific segment of a chromosome may be used as a group (i.e., DNA segment haplotype) to discern additional allelic variants and, thereby, enhance measurements of genetic diversity. Defining the relationships between DNA segment haplotypes allows them to be considered in an evolutionary context and provides an objective means of identifying potentially ancient DNA segments.