Genetic background of hematological parameters in Holstein cattle based on genome-wide association and RNA sequencing analyses

作者：Thomas P. Yang, Hanpeng Luo, Wenqi Lou, Yao Chang, Luiz F. Brito, Hailiang Zhang, Longgang Ma, Lirong Hu, Ao Wang, Shanshan Li, Gang Guo, Yachun Wang · 发表于：Journal of Dairy Science · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3168/jds.2023-24345 · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock、Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals、Cancer-related molecular mechanisms research

Hematological parameters refer to the assessment of changes in the number and distribution of blood cells, including leukocytes (LES), erythrocytes (ERS), and platelets (PLS), which are essential for the early diagnosis of hematological system disorders and other systemic diseases in livestock. In this context, the primary objectives of this study were to investigate the genomic background of 19 hematological parameters in Holstein cattle, focusing on LES, ERS, and PLS blood components. Genetic and phenotypic (co)variances of hematological parameters were calculated based on the average information restricted maximum likelihood method and 1,610 genotyped individuals and 5,499 hematological parameter records from 4,543 cows. Furthermore, we assessed the genetic relationship between these hematological parameters and other economically important traits in dairy cattle breeding programs. We also carried out genome-wide association studies and candidate gene analyses. Blood samples from 21 primiparous cows were used to identify candidate genes further through RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses. Hematological parameters generally exhibited low-to-moderate heritabilities ranging from 0.01 to 0.29, with genetic correlations between them ranging from -0.88 ± 0.09 (between mononuclear cell ratio and lymphocyte cell ratio) to 0.99 ± 0.01 (between white blood cell count and granulocyte cell count). Furthermore, low-to-moderate approximate genetic correlations between hematological parame...