Admixture and selection offer insights for the conservation and breeding of Guyuan cattle

作者：Shuang Liu, Huixuan Yan, Xue Feng, Xiaoyu Luo, Yang Lv, Chuzhao Lei, Ningbo Chen, Yun Ma · 发表于：BMC Biology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s12915-025-02213-y · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock、Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals、Effects of Environmental Stressors on Livestock

BACKGROUND: The admixture between taurine and indicine cattle increases breed diversity and provides new genetic resources for human and natural selection. The climate of northwestern China is typified by cold and arid conditions, and cattle in this region are primarily taurine breeds. However, Guyuan cattle inhabit a transitional zone in northwestern China, typified by semi-arid and semi-humid climates. It is hypothesized that Guyuan cattle have a little of indicine ancestry. These results suggest that Guyuan cattle are a valuable genetic resource. RESULTS: We established a conservation population of Guyuan cattle in their native habitat. We found that Guyuan cattle were an admixture between 78.09% East Asian taurine (EAT) and 20.26% East Asian indicine (EAI) ancestries. The admixture in Guyuan cattle was dated to 255 years ago. Notably, we identified Guyuan cattle as a unique genetic resource, representing a transitional breed between northern and central Chinese cattle with distinct admixture proportions. We revealed that the selection signals in Guyuan cattle with excess EAT ancestry were associated with reproduction, immunity, body length, cold climate adaptation, pigmentation, muscle development, residual feed intake, and fat deposition and that the selection signals in Guyuan cattle with excess EAI ancestry were associated with disease resistance. Remarkably, we discovered valuable single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter regions of the RBM39 and NEK6 gen...