Identification of genomic regions that exhibit sexual dimorphism for size and muscularity in cattle

Doyle, Jennifer L.; Purfield, Deirdre C.; Moore, Tom; Carthy, Tara R.; Walsh, Siobhan W.; Veerkamp, Roel F.; Evans, Ross D.; Berry, Donagh P.

Identification of genomic regions that exhibit sexual dimorphism for size and muscularity in cattle

dc.check.info	Access to this article is restricted until 12 months after publication by request of the publisher.	en
dc.contributor.author	Doyle, Jennifer L.
dc.contributor.author	Purfield, Deirdre C.
dc.contributor.author	Moore, Tom
dc.contributor.author	Carthy, Tara R.
dc.contributor.author	Walsh, Siobhan W.
dc.contributor.author	Veerkamp, Roel F.
dc.contributor.author	Evans, Ross D.
dc.contributor.author	Berry, Donagh P.
dc.contributor.funder	Science Foundation Ireland	en
dc.date.accessioned	2021-03-12T09:55:20Z
dc.date.available	2021-03-12T09:55:20Z
dc.date.issued	2021-03-02
dc.date.updated	2021-03-10T10:12:32Z
dc.description.abstract	Sexual dimorphism, the phenomenon whereby males and females of the same species are distinctive in some aspect of appearance or size, has previously been documented in cattle for traits such as growth rate and carcass merit using a quantitative genetics approach. No previous study in cattle has attempted to document sexual dimorphism at a genome level; therefore, the objective of the present study was to determine if genomic regions associated with size and muscularity in cattle exhibited signs of sexual dimorphism. Analyses were undertaken on 10 linear type traits that describe the muscular and skeletal characteristics of both males and females of 5 beef cattle breeds; 1,444 Angus (AA), 6,433 Charolais (CH), 1,129 Hereford (HE), 8,745 Limousin (LM), and 1,698 Simmental (SI). Genome wide association analyses were undertaken using imputed whole-genome sequence data for each sex separately by breed. For each SNP that was segregating in both sexes, the difference between the allele substitution effect sizes for each sex, in each breed separately, was calculated. Suggestively (p = 1 x 10 -5) sexually dimorphic SNPs that were segregating in both males and females were detected for all traits in all breeds, although the location of these SNPs differed by both trait and breed. Significantly (p = 1 x 10 -8) dimorphic SNPs were detected in just three traits in the AA, seven traits in the CH and three traits in the LM. The vast majority of all segregating autosomal SNPs (86% in AA to 94% in LM) had the same minor allele in both males and females. Differences (p = 0.05) in allele frequencies between the sexes were observed for between 36% (LM) and 66% (AA) of the total autosomal SNPs that were segregating in both sexes. Dimorphic SNPs were located within a number of genes related to muscularity and/or size including the NAB1, COL5A2, and IWS1 genes on BTA2 that are located close to, and thought to be co-inherited with, the MSTN gene. Overall, sexual dimorphism exists in cattle at the genome level, but it is not consistent by either trait or breed.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Science Foundation Ireland (14/IA/2576; 16/RC/3835; VistaMilk)	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Accepted Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.articleid	skab070	en
dc.identifier.citation	Doyle, J. L., Purfield, D. C., Moore, T., Carthy, T. R., Walsh, S. W., Veerkamp, R. F., Evans, R. D. and Berry, D. P. (2021) 'Identification of genomic regions that exhibit sexual dimorphism for size and muscularity in cattle', Journal of Animal Science. doi: 10.1093/jas/skab070	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1093/jas/skab070	en
dc.identifier.eissn	1525-3163
dc.identifier.issn	0021-8812
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Journal of Animal Science	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/11136
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Oxford University Press	en
dc.rights	© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science. All rights reserved.	en
dc.subject	Genomic regions	en
dc.subject	Sexual dimorphism	en
dc.subject	Cattle	en
dc.title	Identification of genomic regions that exhibit sexual dimorphism for size and muscularity in cattle	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en