Novel genes involved in the genetic architecture of temperament in Brahman cattle

Authors: PAREDES-SANCHEZ, FRANCISCO - Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro De Desarrollo De Productos Bioticos (CEPROBI); SIFUENTES-RINCON, ANA - Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro De Desarrollo De Productos Bioticos (CEPROBI); Casas, Eduardo; ARELLANO-VERA, WILLIAMS - Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro De Desarrollo De Productos Bioticos (CEPROBI); PARRA-BRACAMONTE, G.MANUEL - Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro De Desarrollo De Productos Bioticos (CEPROBI); RILEY, DAVID - Texas A&M University; WELSH JR., THOMAS - Texas A&M University; RANDEL, RONALD - Texas A&M Agrilife

Submitted to: PLOS ONE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/3/2020
Publication Date: 8/21/2020
Citation: Paredes-Sanchez, F.A., Sifuentes-Rincon, A.M., Casas, E., Arellano-Vera, W., Parra-Bracamonte, G., Riley, D.G., Welsh Jr., T.H., Randel, R.D. 2020. Novel genes involved in the genetic architecture of temperament in Brahman cattle. PLoS ONE. 15(8). Article e0237825. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237825.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237825

Interpretive Summary: Cattle temperament is an economically relevant trait in cattle. Brahman is known to be temperamental when compared to European breeds. The objective was to identify genetic markers located within or near candidate genes that could explain the differences in behavior of Brahman cattle. There were fourteen genetic markers associated with temperament in Brahman; nine were near a gene, and five were within genes. The fourteen identified genes are known to be implicated in a variety of behavioral and cognitive functions. The five genetic markers residing within the genes indicate the genes where they reside are candidates to control bovine temperament.

Technical Abstract: Cattle temperament is a complex and economically relevant trait. The objective of this study was to identify genomic regions and genes associated with cattle temperament. From a Brahman cattle population of 1,370 animals evaluated for temperament traits (Exit velocity-EV, Pen Score-PS, Temperament Score-TS), two groups of temperament-contrasting animals were identified based on their EV-average values plus/negative 1/2 standard deviation (SD). To be considered in the calm group, the EV of females ranged between 0.16–1.82 m/s (n equals 50) and the EV of males ranged between 0.4–1.56 m/s (n equals 48). Females were classified as temperamental if their EV ranged between 3.13–7.66 m/s (n equals 46) and males were classified as temperamental if their EV ranged between 3.05–10.83 m/s (n equals 45). Selected animals were genotyped using a total of 139,376 SNPs (GGP-HD-150K), evaluated for their association with EV. The Genome-Wide Association analysis (GWAS) identified fourteen SNPs: rs135340276, rs134895560, rs110190635, rs42949831, rs135982573, rs109393235, rs109531929, rs135087545, rs41839733, rs42486577, rs136661522, rs110882543, rs110864071, rs109722627, (P less than 8.1E-05), nine of them were located on intergenic regions, harboring seventeen genes, of which only ACER3, VRK2, FANCL and SLCO3A1 were considered candidate associated with bovine temperament due to their reported biological functions. Five SNPs were located at introns of the NRXN3, EXOC4, CACNG4 and SLC9A4 genes. The indicated candidate genes are implicated in a wide range of behavioural phenotypes and complex cognitive functions. The association of the fourteen SNPs on bovine temperament traits (EV, PS and TS) was evaluated; all these SNPs were significant for EV; only some were associated with PS and TS. Fourteen SNPs were associated with EV which allowed the identification of twenty-one candidate genes for Brahman temperament. From a functional point of view, the five intronic SNPs identified in this study, are candidates to address control of bovine temperament, further investigation will probe their role in expression of this trait.