Department of Support, Production and Animal Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, São Paulo State University (Unesp), 16050-680 R. Clovis Pestana 793-Dona Amelia, Araçatuba, SP, Brazil.
International Atomic Energy Agency, Collaborating Centre on Animal Genomics and Bioinformatics, 16050-680 R. Clovis Pestana 793-Dona Amelia, Araçatuba, SP, Brazil.
Anim Genet. 2019 Dec;50(6):557-568. doi: 10.1111/age.12836. Epub 2019 Sep 2.
Together with their sister subspecies Bos taurus, zebu cattle (Bos indicus) have contributed to important socioeconomic changes that have shaped modern civilizations. Zebu cattle were domesticated in the Indus Valley 8000 years before present (YBP). From the domestication site, they expanded to Africa, East Asia, southwestern Asia and Europe between 4000 and 1300 YBP, intercrossing with B. taurus to form clinal variations of zebu ancestry across the landmass of Afro-Eurasia. In the past 150 years, zebu cattle reached the Americas and Oceania, where they have contributed to the prosperity of emerging economies. The zebu genome is characterized by two mitochondrial haplogroups (I1 and I2), one Y chromosome haplogroup (Y3) and three major autosomal ancestral groups (Indian-Pakistani, African and Chinese). Phenotypically, zebu animals are recognized by their hump, large ears and excess skin. They are rustic, resilient to parasites and capable of bearing the hot and humid climates of the tropics. Many resources are available to study the zebu genome, including commercial arrays of SNP, reference assemblies and publicly available genotypes and whole-genome sequences. Nevertheless, many of these resources were initially developed to support research and subsidize industrial applications in B. taurus, and therefore they can produce bias in data analysis. The combination of genomics with precision agriculture holds great promise for the identification of genetic variants affecting economically important traits such as tick resistance and heat tolerance, which were naturally selected for millennia and played a major role in the evolution of B. indicus cattle.
与它们的姐妹亚种黄牛（Bos taurus）一起，瘤牛（Bos indicus）促成了重要的社会经济变革，塑造了现代文明。瘤牛在 8000 年前的印度河流域被驯化。从驯化地开始，它们在 4000 至 1300 年前扩展到非洲、东亚、西南亚和欧洲，与黄牛杂交形成了在整个非欧亚大陆瘤牛遗传背景的渐变。在过去的 150 年里，瘤牛到达了美洲和大洋洲，在那里它们为新兴经济体的繁荣做出了贡献。瘤牛基因组的特点是有两个线粒体单倍群（I1 和 I2）、一个 Y 染色体单倍群（Y3）和三个主要的常染色体祖先群（印度-巴基斯坦、非洲和中国）。表型上，瘤牛动物以其驼峰、大耳朵和多余的皮肤为特征。它们质朴，对寄生虫有抵抗力，能够承受热带地区的炎热和潮湿气候。有许多资源可用于研究瘤牛基因组，包括商业 SNP 芯片、参考基因组组装以及公开的基因型和全基因组序列。然而，许多这些资源最初是为支持黄牛的研究和补贴工业应用而开发的，因此它们可能会在数据分析中产生偏差。基因组学与精准农业的结合为鉴定影响经济重要性状的遗传变异提供了巨大的希望，这些性状在数千年的自然选择中得到了选择，在瘤牛的进化中发挥了重要作用。
