Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations

Great progress has been made over recent years in the identification of selection signatures in the genomes of livestock species. This work has primarily been carried out in commercial breeds for which the dominant selection pressures are associated with artificial selection. As agriculture and food...

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Main Authors: Wiener, P., Robert, C., Ahbara, A., Salavati, M., Abebe, A., Kebede, Adebabay, Wragg, D., Friedrich, J., Vasoya, D., Hume, D.A., Djikeng, Appolinaire, Watson, M., Prendergast, James G.D., Hanotte, Olivier H., Mwacharo, Joram M., Clark, E.L.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Oxford University Press 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111051
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author Wiener, P.
Robert, C.
Ahbara, A.
Salavati, M.
Abebe, A.
Kebede, Adebabay
Wragg, D.
Friedrich, J.
Vasoya, D.
Hume, D.A.
Djikeng, Appolinaire
Watson, M.
Prendergast, James G.D.
Hanotte, Olivier H.
Mwacharo, Joram M.
Clark, E.L.
author_browse Abebe, A.
Ahbara, A.
Clark, E.L.
Djikeng, Appolinaire
Friedrich, J.
Hanotte, Olivier H.
Hume, D.A.
Kebede, Adebabay
Mwacharo, Joram M.
Prendergast, James G.D.
Robert, C.
Salavati, M.
Vasoya, D.
Watson, M.
Wiener, P.
Wragg, D.
author_facet Wiener, P.
Robert, C.
Ahbara, A.
Salavati, M.
Abebe, A.
Kebede, Adebabay
Wragg, D.
Friedrich, J.
Vasoya, D.
Hume, D.A.
Djikeng, Appolinaire
Watson, M.
Prendergast, James G.D.
Hanotte, Olivier H.
Mwacharo, Joram M.
Clark, E.L.
author_sort Wiener, P.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Great progress has been made over recent years in the identification of selection signatures in the genomes of livestock species. This work has primarily been carried out in commercial breeds for which the dominant selection pressures are associated with artificial selection. As agriculture and food security are likely to be strongly affected by climate change, a better understanding of environment-imposed selection on agricultural species is warranted. Ethiopia is an ideal setting to investigate environmental adaptation in livestock due to its wide variation in geo-climatic characteristics and the extensive genetic and phenotypic variation of its livestock. Here, we identified over three million single nucleotide variants across 12 Ethiopian sheep populations and applied landscape genomics approaches to investigate the association between these variants and environmental variables. Our results suggest that environmental adaptation for precipitation-related variables is stronger than that related to altitude or temperature, consistent with large-scale meta-analyses of selection pressure across species. The set of genes showing association with environmental variables was enriched for genes highly expressed in human blood and nerve tissues. There was also evidence of enrichment for genes associated with high-altitude adaptation although no strong association was identified with hypoxia-inducible-factor (HIF) genes. One of the strongest altitude-related signals was for a collagen gene, consistent with previous studies of high-altitude adaptation. Several altitude-associated genes also showed evidence of adaptation with temperature, suggesting a relationship between responses to these environmental factors. These results provide a foundation to investigate further the effects of climatic variables on small ruminant populations.
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spelling CGSpace1110512025-02-19T13:41:57Z Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations Wiener, P. Robert, C. Ahbara, A. Salavati, M. Abebe, A. Kebede, Adebabay Wragg, D. Friedrich, J. Vasoya, D. Hume, D.A. Djikeng, Appolinaire Watson, M. Prendergast, James G.D. Hanotte, Olivier H. Mwacharo, Joram M. Clark, E.L. animal genetics genetics animal breeding sheep small ruminants Great progress has been made over recent years in the identification of selection signatures in the genomes of livestock species. This work has primarily been carried out in commercial breeds for which the dominant selection pressures are associated with artificial selection. As agriculture and food security are likely to be strongly affected by climate change, a better understanding of environment-imposed selection on agricultural species is warranted. Ethiopia is an ideal setting to investigate environmental adaptation in livestock due to its wide variation in geo-climatic characteristics and the extensive genetic and phenotypic variation of its livestock. Here, we identified over three million single nucleotide variants across 12 Ethiopian sheep populations and applied landscape genomics approaches to investigate the association between these variants and environmental variables. Our results suggest that environmental adaptation for precipitation-related variables is stronger than that related to altitude or temperature, consistent with large-scale meta-analyses of selection pressure across species. The set of genes showing association with environmental variables was enriched for genes highly expressed in human blood and nerve tissues. There was also evidence of enrichment for genes associated with high-altitude adaptation although no strong association was identified with hypoxia-inducible-factor (HIF) genes. One of the strongest altitude-related signals was for a collagen gene, consistent with previous studies of high-altitude adaptation. Several altitude-associated genes also showed evidence of adaptation with temperature, suggesting a relationship between responses to these environmental factors. These results provide a foundation to investigate further the effects of climatic variables on small ruminant populations. 2021-03-01 2021-01-29T16:56:23Z 2021-01-29T16:56:23Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111051 en Open Access Oxford University Press Wiener, P., Robert, C., Ahbara, A., Salavati, M., Abebe, A., Kebede, A., Wragg, D., Friedrich, J., Vasoya, D., Hume, D.A., Djikeng, A., Watson, M., Prendergast, J.G.D., Hanotte, O., Mwacharo, J.M. and Clark, E.L. 2021. Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations. Genome Biology and Evolution 13(1):evaa232.
spellingShingle animal genetics
genetics
animal breeding
sheep
small ruminants
Wiener, P.
Robert, C.
Ahbara, A.
Salavati, M.
Abebe, A.
Kebede, Adebabay
Wragg, D.
Friedrich, J.
Vasoya, D.
Hume, D.A.
Djikeng, Appolinaire
Watson, M.
Prendergast, James G.D.
Hanotte, Olivier H.
Mwacharo, Joram M.
Clark, E.L.
Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations
title Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations
title_full Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations
title_fullStr Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations
title_full_unstemmed Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations
title_short Whole-genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of Ethiopian sheep populations
title_sort whole genome sequence data suggests environmental adaptation of ethiopian sheep populations
topic animal genetics
genetics
animal breeding
sheep
small ruminants
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111051
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