Temperature as a predictor of fouling and diarrhea in Slaughter pigs

Understanding the underlying pleiotropic relationships among quantitative traits is integral to predict correlated responses to artificial selection. The availability of large-scale next-generation sequence data in cattle has provided an opportunity to examine whether pleiotropy is responsible for overlapping QTLs in multiple economic traits. In the present study, we examined QTLs effecting cattle stillbirth, calf size, and adult stature located in the same genomic region. A genome scan with whole sequence variants revealed one QTL with large effects on the service sire calving index (SCI), and body conformation index (BCI) at the same location (~39 Mb) on chromosome 6 in Nordic Red cattle. The targeted region was analyzed for SCI and BCI component traits. The QTL peak included LCORL/NCAPG genes, which were earlier reported to influence fetal growth, and adult stature in several species. The QTL exhibited large effects on calf size and stature in Nordic Red cattle. Two deviant haplot ypes (HAP1 and HAP2) were resolved, which increased calf size at birth, and effected adult body conformation. However, the haplotypes also resulted in increased calving difficulties and calf mortality due to increased calf size at birth. Haplotype locations overlapped, however linkage disequilibrium (LD) between the sites was low, suggesting two independent mutations responsible for similar effects. The difference in prevalence between the two haplotypes in Nordic Red subpopulations suggested independent origins in different populations. Results of our study identified QTLs with large effects on body conformation, and service sire calving traits on chromosome 6 in cattle. We present robust evidence that variation at the LCORL/NCAPG locus effects calf size at birth and adult stature. We suggest the two deviant haplotypes within the QTL were due to two independent mutations