Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Department of Animal Science Food and Nutrition - DIANA, Nutrigenomics and Proteomics Research Centre - PRONUTRIGEN, and Biodiversity and Ancient DNA Research Centre, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy.
School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jan 28;10(1):1279. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-57880-4.
Cattle domestication occurred at least twice independently and gave rise to the modern taurine and indicine cattle breeds. European cattle diversity is generally dominated by taurine cattle, although elevated levels of indicine ancestry have been recorded in several breeds from southern Europe. Here we use genome-wide high-density SNP genotyping data to investigate the taurine and indicine ancestry in southern European cattle, based on a dataset comprising 508 individuals from 23 cattle breeds of taurine, indicine and mixed ancestry, including three breeds from Central Italy known to exhibit the highest levels of indicine introgression among southern European breeds. Based on local genomic ancestry analyses, we reconstruct taurine and indicine ancestry genome-wide and along chromosomes. We scrutinise local genomic introgression signals and identify genomic regions that have introgressed from indicine into taurine cattle under positive selection, harbouring genes with functions related to body size and feed efficiency. These findings suggest that indicine-derived traits helped enhance Central Italian cattle through adaptive introgression. The identified genes could provide genomic targets for selection for improved cattle performance. Our findings elucidate the key role of adaptive introgression in shaping the phenotypic features of modern cattle, aided by cultural and livestock exchange among historic human societies.
牛的驯化至少独立发生了两次，产生了现代的瘤牛和印度牛品种。欧洲牛的多样性通常以瘤牛为主，尽管在来自南欧的几个品种中记录到了较高水平的印度牛血统。在这里，我们使用全基因组高密度 SNP 基因分型数据来研究南欧牛的瘤牛和印度牛血统，该数据集基于来自 23 个瘤牛、印度牛和混合血统的牛品种的 508 个个体，包括来自意大利中部的三个品种，它们在南欧品种中表现出最高水平的印度牛渗入。基于局部基因组祖先分析，我们重建了全基因组和染色体上的瘤牛和印度牛祖先。我们仔细检查了局部基因组渗入信号，并确定了从印度牛渗入到瘤牛中的受正向选择影响的基因组区域，这些区域包含与体型和饲料效率相关的功能的基因。这些发现表明，印度牛衍生的特征通过适应性渗入帮助增强了意大利中部的牛。鉴定出的基因可以为选择提高牛的性能提供基因组靶标。我们的研究结果阐明了适应性渗入在塑造现代牛的表型特征方面的关键作用，这得益于历史人类社会之间的文化和牲畜交流。
