Through a wide ranging collaborative network, multiple indigenous cattle breeds from Eastern, Western, Central and Southern Africa have been sampled and are in the process of being sequenced. This unique resource augments global availability and access to additional genomic resources on important cattle breeds and aids the identification of regions of the genomes that underpin tropical adaptation and resilience.
CTLGH researchers are comparing genomic information from two divergent African breeds (N’dama Bos taurus and Boran Bos indicus) to test whether the currently available SNP array that has been developed using European Bos taurus cattle, accurately captures the genetic diversity of indigenous African cattle populations.
An online bovine omics atlas (BOmAs) has also been created and is freely accessible to scientists to support future tropical cattle research.
In addition to the sequencing of multiple tropical cattle breeds, CTLGH researchers at the Roslin Institute have also secured £1.2 million from BBSRC’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) to capture and record the genomic diversity of several other tropical livestock species. Working with collaborators across Africa, they have successfully sequenced the genomes of several African breeds of sheep, goats, cattle, wild pigs and buffalo to produce reference genomes for genomic and phenotypic analysis.
