Genome dynamics in livestock breeding: how the features of the genome affect breeding

This project will improve our understanding of how the features of the genome affect breeding by combining genome analysis of cattle, pigs, and chickens with genetic simulation, using a software pipeline that we will develop.To make breeding more sustainable and precise, we need to understand how the features of the genome affects breeding.

Accumulated sequence data and new methods make realistic models of genomes possible.

We need to know:How variable recombination and mutation affect genetic variation in livestockHow evolutionary history and linkage constrain genetic variation in livestockHow genome features affect our ability to detect and select genetic variants that affect traitsThis project will analyse sequence from cattle, pigs and chickens to discover how genetic variation is distributed in the genome, in order to improve our understanding of how the features of the genome affect breeding.We will:estimate recombination and mutation rate to learn how they affect genetic variation in livestockestimate variant intolerance of genes and coupling between variants to learn how evolutionary history and linkage constrain genetic variation in livestockquantify the accuracy of genomic selection and power of genome-wide association, to learn how genome features affect our ability to detect and select variants that affects traitsWe will disseminate the results through an open livestock genome resource and dialogue with industry collaborators during the project.