Assessing major genes allele frequencies and the genetic diversity of the native Aosta cattle female population

Abstract

The Aosta cattle breeds have a key role in the economy of the Aosta Valley. In addition to the meat and milk production these autochthonous breeds are important for their cultural value, and for their role in the maintenance of the mountain environment. The knowledge of their genetic makeup represents a fundamental asset to managing the reproduction of the population in order to maintain the existing genetic diversity and, as a possible input, to apply genomic selection in a small population. A total of 3195 Aosta cows were genotyped with the GeneSeek Genomic Profiler® (GGP) Bovine 100K by Neogen in the framework of the DUALBREEDING-2 project. The Aosta Black-Chestnut and Chestnut-Herèn resulted to be a unique population. The Aosta female population had shorter ROH than bulls and shared ROH_islands that harbour adaptative and functional genes. Allele frequencies of major genes highlight the possibility for selection for both milk and meat quality variants and that the Aosta cattle population is free from the known Mendelian inheritance diseases found in cosmopolitan breeds (e.g. BLAD, CVM, HCD).

HIGHLIGHTS

• The autochthonous Aosta cattle breeds are free from the Mendelian inheritance disease variants found in cosmopolitan cattle.

• Allele frequencies revealed the effort in selection for variants related to cheese yield and a viable selection for variants related to meat quality.

• The use of genomic information in Aosta cattle can help maintain the biodiversity of these local breeds and their peculiarities.

Keywords:

• Aosta cattle breeds
• autochthonous cattle
• genetic diversity
• ROH
• Mendelian traits

Acknowledgments

The Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Razza Valdostana is kindly acknowledged for providing the genotypes and the data used for the analyses.

Author contributions

FB, MGS and AB: Conceived and designed the study; FB: data analysis; AD, RM and CP: participated to data analysis; MV and VB: data curation; MV and AB project administration; MV: funding acquisition; FB, MGS and AB: wrote the original draft. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data supporting the conclusions of this manuscript are included in the Supplementary Materials.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Project name: “Le razze bovine a duplice attitudine: un modello alternativo di zootecnia eco-sostenibile – DUAL BREEDING FASE 2” – PSRN Programma di Sviluppo Rurale Nazionale 2014/2020 – Sottomisura 10.2 – PERIODO 2020-2023 – funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.