Analysis of genetic-statistical models for Genomic Selection and QTL-Mapping

• Applicant: Dr. David Habier
• Subject Area: Animal Breeding, Animal Nutrition, Animal Husbandry
• Term: from 2006 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 29487966

Due to advances in molecular genetics, animals can be genotyped for thousands of maker loci at one time, providing dense marker maps. It has been proposed to use these to obtain genome-assisted breeding values (GABV). Results from simulation studies were promising with high correlations between true and estimated breeding values of around 0.8 from a single generation of data. This is comparable to the accuracy of BLUP-EBV for progeny tested selection candidates. Since GABV are available as soon as genotyping is feasible, generation intervals in breeding programs can be reduced and thus genetic improvement can be increased enormously. The models that have been proposed so far assume independent effects of marker loci, which is not realistic. Furthermore, these models capture linkage disequilibrium (LD) while neglecting information from cosegregation (CS). Even though the precision of GABVs is expected to be high, models combining LD and CS should be able to reduce both the cost for genotyping and the number of test animals. These models might make GABV more attractive for pigs and poultry breeding in particular. The objective of the proposed research project is first to develop a statistical model which includes a dependence structure for effects of marker loci. Then, models that combine LD and CS will be considered. These models will be evaluated with simulated data and real data provided by a poultry breeding company.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. R.L. Fernando