Genome-wide association studies for immunoglobulin concentrations in colostrum and serum in Chinese Holstein

Abstract

Background The early death and health problems of calves caused substantial economic losses in the dairy industry. As the immune system of neonates has not been fully developed, the absorption of maternal immunoglobulin (Ig) from colostrum is essential in protecting newborn calves against common disease organisms in their early life. The overwhelming majority of Ig in bovine whey is transported from the serum. Therefore, Ig concentration in the colostrum and serum of dairy cows are critical traits when estimating the potential disease resistance of its offspring. Results Colostrum, blood, and hair follicle samples were collected from 588 Chinese Holstein cows within 24 h after calving. The concentration of total IgG, IgG1, IgG2, IgA and IgM in both colostrum and serum were detected via ELISA methods. With GCTA software, genome-wide association studies (GWASs) were performed with 91,620 SNPs genotyped by GeneSeek 150 K (140,668 SNPs) chips. As a result, 1, 5, 1 and 29 significant SNPs were detected associated with the concentrations of colostrum IgG1, IgG2, IgA IgM, and serum IgG2 at the genome-wide level (P < 3.08E–6); 11, 2, 13, 2, 12, 8, 2, 27, 1 and 4 SNPs were found significantly associated with total IgG, IgG1, IgG2, IgA and IgM in colostrum and serum at the suggestive level (P < 6.15E–5). Such SNPs located in or proximate to (±1 Mb) 423 genes, which were functionally implicated in biological processes and pathways, such as immune response, B cell activation, inflammatory response and NF-kappaB signaling pathways. By combining the biological functions and the known QTL data for immune traits in bovine, 14 promising candidate functional genes were identified for immunoglobulin concentrations in colostrum and serum in dairy cattle, they were FGFR4, FGFR2, NCF1, IKBKG, SORBS3, IGHV1S18, KIT, PTGS2, BAX, GRB2, TAOK1, ICAM1, TGFB1 and RAC3. Conclusions In this study, we identified 14 candidate genes related to concentrations of immunoglobulins in colostrum and serum in dairy cattle by performing GWASs. Our findings provide a groundwork for unraveling the key genes and causal mutations affecting immunoglobulin concentrations in colostrum and important information for genetic improvement of such traits in dairy cattle.

Comparison of miR-106b, miR-191, and miR-30d expression dynamics in milk with regard to its composition in Holstein and Ayrshire cows

“…The TAOK1 gene, serine/threonine-protein kinase TAO1, is a MAP3K protein kinase that, through regulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, modulates a significant number of cellular processes. TAOK1 was previously identified as one of the functional candidate genes for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM immunoglobulin content in the colostrum and serum of Holstein cows [44], confirming its involvement in the synthesis of milk components.…”

Genetic diversity analysis of Inner Mongolia cashmere goats (Erlangshan subtype) based on whole genome re-sequencing

“…The quality control of the SNP data in IMCGs was presented in Table 1 . Following the application of filtering conditions, such as MAF < 0.1, HWE p ≤ 10 –6 , and SNPs with call rates < 0.9 [ 23 ]. A total of 127,001,178 high-quality SNPs were obtained from 225 individuals.…”

A genome‐wide comparison between selected and unselected Valle del Belice sheep reveals differences in population structure and footprints of recent selection

“…The highest signal in this region spans from 20,360,396 to 21,680,960 bp. Within this window, there is a shared region with a ROH encompassing TAOK1 , a gene modulating IgG and IgM concentration in colostrum and serum (Lin et al, 2022). Furthermore, among the cluster of outliers in this region (seven SNPs), two highly significant SNPs (rs417806498 and rs428702588) are located in SSH2 , a gene that encodes a protein tyrosine phosphatase which plays a key role in the regulation of actin filaments, and that is linked to intra‐muscular fat in sheep (Daetwyler et al, 2012) and height at withers in cattle (Vanvanhossou et al, 2020).…”