Variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversity

We evaluated the relevance of the BovineHD Illumina SNP chip with respect to genes involved in epigenetic processes. Genotypes for 729,068 SNP on two tropical cattle breeds of Australia were used: Brahman (n = 2,112) and Tropical Composite (n = 2,550). We used data mining approaches to compile a lis...

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Main Authors: Laercio R Porto-Neto, Marina RS Fortes, Sean M McWilliam, Sigrid A Lehnert, Antonio eReverter
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-04-01
Series:Frontiers in Genetics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fgene.2014.00089/full
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author Laercio R Porto-Neto
Marina RS Fortes
Sean M McWilliam
Sigrid A Lehnert
Antonio eReverter
author_facet Laercio R Porto-Neto
Marina RS Fortes
Sean M McWilliam
Sigrid A Lehnert
Antonio eReverter
author_sort Laercio R Porto-Neto
collection DOAJ
description We evaluated the relevance of the BovineHD Illumina SNP chip with respect to genes involved in epigenetic processes. Genotypes for 729,068 SNP on two tropical cattle breeds of Australia were used: Brahman (n = 2,112) and Tropical Composite (n = 2,550). We used data mining approaches to compile a list of bovine protein-coding genes involved in epigenetic processes. These genes represent 9 functional categories that contain between one (histone demethylases) and 99 (chromatin remodelling factors) genes. A total of 3,091 SNP mapped to positions within 3,000 bp of the 193 coding regions of those genes, including 113 SNP in transcribed regions, 2,738 in intronic regions and 240 in up- or down-stream regions. For all these SNP categories, we observed differences in the allelic frequencies between Brahman and Tropical Composite cattle. These differences were larger than those observed for the entire set of 729,068 SNP (P = 1.79 x 10-5). A multidimensional scaling analysis using only the 113 SNP in transcribed regions allowed for the separation of the two populations and this separation was comparable to the one obtained with a random set of 113 SNP (Principal Component 1 r2 > 0.84). To further characterise the differences between the breeds we defined a gene-differentiation metric based on the average genotypic frequencies of SNP connected to each gene and compared both cattle populations. The 10% most differentiated genes were distributed across 10 chromosomes, with significant (P < 0.05) enrichment on BTA 3 and 10. The 10% most conserved genes were located in 12 chromosomes. We conclude that there is variation between cattle populations in genes connected to epigenetic processes, and this variation can be used to differentiate cattle breeds. More research is needed to fully characterise the use of these SNP and its potential as means to further our understanding of biological variation and epigenetic processes.
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spelling doaj.art-22593d1a7b3b41c8a3158470f1a9ff432022-12-22T02:44:47ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Genetics1664-80212014-04-01510.3389/fgene.2014.0008978461Variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversityLaercio R Porto-Neto0Marina RS Fortes1Sean M McWilliam2Sigrid A Lehnert3Antonio eReverter4Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)The University of QueenslandCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)We evaluated the relevance of the BovineHD Illumina SNP chip with respect to genes involved in epigenetic processes. Genotypes for 729,068 SNP on two tropical cattle breeds of Australia were used: Brahman (n = 2,112) and Tropical Composite (n = 2,550). We used data mining approaches to compile a list of bovine protein-coding genes involved in epigenetic processes. These genes represent 9 functional categories that contain between one (histone demethylases) and 99 (chromatin remodelling factors) genes. A total of 3,091 SNP mapped to positions within 3,000 bp of the 193 coding regions of those genes, including 113 SNP in transcribed regions, 2,738 in intronic regions and 240 in up- or down-stream regions. For all these SNP categories, we observed differences in the allelic frequencies between Brahman and Tropical Composite cattle. These differences were larger than those observed for the entire set of 729,068 SNP (P = 1.79 x 10-5). A multidimensional scaling analysis using only the 113 SNP in transcribed regions allowed for the separation of the two populations and this separation was comparable to the one obtained with a random set of 113 SNP (Principal Component 1 r2 > 0.84). To further characterise the differences between the breeds we defined a gene-differentiation metric based on the average genotypic frequencies of SNP connected to each gene and compared both cattle populations. The 10% most differentiated genes were distributed across 10 chromosomes, with significant (P < 0.05) enrichment on BTA 3 and 10. The 10% most conserved genes were located in 12 chromosomes. We conclude that there is variation between cattle populations in genes connected to epigenetic processes, and this variation can be used to differentiate cattle breeds. More research is needed to fully characterise the use of these SNP and its potential as means to further our understanding of biological variation and epigenetic processes.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fgene.2014.00089/fullepigeneticspolymorphismsbovine speciescattle diversityhigh-density genotypes
spellingShingle Laercio R Porto-Neto
Marina RS Fortes
Sean M McWilliam
Sigrid A Lehnert
Antonio eReverter
Variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversity
Frontiers in Genetics
epigenetics
polymorphisms
bovine species
cattle diversity
high-density genotypes
title Variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversity
title_full Variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversity
title_fullStr Variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversity
title_full_unstemmed Variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversity
title_short Variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversity
title_sort variation in genes involved in epigenetic processes offers insights into tropically adapted cattle diversity
topic epigenetics
polymorphisms
bovine species
cattle diversity
high-density genotypes
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fgene.2014.00089/full
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AT sigridalehnert variationingenesinvolvedinepigeneticprocessesoffersinsightsintotropicallyadaptedcattlediversity
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