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ARS Home » Plains Area » Miles City, Montana » Livestock and Range Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #408427
Research Project: Identifying and Mitigating Factors that Limit Beef Production Efficiency

Location: Livestock and Range Research Laboratory

Title: Genomic evaluation of recombination in small highly inbred beef cattle populations

Author
item Hay, El Hamidi
item Ling, Ashley

Submitted to: Animal Research and One Health
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/20/2025
Publication Date: 2/17/2025
Citation: Hay, E.A., Ling, A.S. 2025. Genomic evaluation of recombination in small highly inbred beef cattle populations. Animal Research and One Health. https://doi.org/10.1002/aro2.103.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aro2.103

Interpretive Summary: Recombination occurring between homologous chromosomes is an important process in maintaining genetic variation. With the adoption of genomic selection in livestock species, inbreeding is increasing, and genetic variance is decreasing. Recombination could be used as a tool to release genetic variation and control accumulation of inbreeding. Recombination has been studied in several livestock species including beef cattle; however, it is not well characterized in small, inbred beef cattle populations. In this study, recombination was characterized in two closed beef cattle populations. Moreover, a genome wide association study was conducted to detect putative variants associated with recombination.

Technical Abstract: Meiotic recombination increases genetic variation which is essential for survival and adaptation of eukaryote populations. Recombination is not well characterized in small, inbred beef cattle populations. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate and characterize recombination in two closed beef cattle populations. The data consisted of 1020 Line 1 Hereford and 3420 composite (50% Red Angus, 25% Charolais, 25% Tarentaise) genotyped with 50K SNP chip panel. Crossover events were calculated by comparing the haplotypes of offspring to those of their parents. The composite population had higher recombination than the inbred population. Further, the average genetic recombination distance was 1.34 cM/Mb for the composite and 1.36 cM/Mb for Line 1. Furthermore, several recombination hot spots were detected in Line 1 and the composite population. Clearly, inbreeding led to less recombination events which could be due to the long homozygous segments hindering the detection of recombinant haplotypes.