Whole genome association analysis for pork quality in both cross- and pure-bred populations.

了解与人类疾病复杂性状变异有关的基因是生物学研究中最令人兴奋的领域之一。这个领域被称为基因组学。基因组学技术也为动物育种者提供了巨大的机会，因为它可以提供新的工具，可以用来轻松而准确地选择动物的肉类质量和动物健康等特征。这些特征很难测量或成本高昂，或者需要间接解决--例如，肉类质量只能在死后确定，以便对潜在繁殖动物的亲属进行测量。猪的基因组现在正在测序中，这项工作将产生大量的DNA标记(例如单核苷酸多态-SNPs)，这些标记可以用来寻找解释这些性状变异的基因。这个过程使用了数以万计的DNA标记，被称为全基因组关联分析。它的结果是识别出可用作诊断工具的DNA标记，以帮助估计动物在这些重要特征上的繁育价值，并在动物生命的早期做到这一点。这些工具提高了对感兴趣的特征的准确性和改进率，从而能够生产出更好地满足消费者不断变化的需求的猪肉。该项目是艾伯塔大学与两家生猪养殖公司(Genesus和Hypor)的合作项目，将收集大量用于猪肉生产的商业杂交猪以及用于生产它们的纯系(相当于品种)的测量数据。收集的样本和数据将使该团队能够在开发出新的DNA工具后立即利用基因组测序产生的新DNA工具。将产生的丰富数据集和结果将提供新的工具，帮助开发更好的猪肉产品，并创造新的机会，开发新的养猪方法。该团队正在寻求应用人类生物学中开发的最新方法来创造新的方法，以提高加拿大生猪养殖和生产部门的竞争力。如果加拿大想要在选择、生产和出口健康猪和猪肉方面保持世界领先地位，这种方法是必不可少的。

Understanding the genes involved in variation in complex traits in human diseases is one of the most exciting areas of biological research. This area is termed genomics. Genomics technology also offers tremendous opportunities for animal breeders, as it can provide new tools that can be used to easily and accurately select animals for traits such as meat quality and animal health. These traits are difficult or expensive to measure, or need to be addressed indirectly - for example, meat quality can only be determined post mortem so that measurements are made on relatives of potential breeding animals. The pig genome is now being sequenced and this exercise will generate large numbers of DNA markers (e.g. single nucleotide polymorphisms - SNPs) that can be used to find the genes that explain variation in such traits. This process, using tens of thousands of DNA markers, is known as whole genome association analysis. It results in the identification of DNA markers that can be used as diagnostic tools to help estimate the breeding value of an animal for these important traits and to do this early in the life of an animal. These tools increase the accuracy and rate of improvement for the traits of interest so as to be able to produce pork that better meets the changing demands of consumers. This project, a partnership between the University of Alberta and two pig breeding companies (Genesus and Hypor) will collect large numbers of measurements on commercial crossbred pigs used for pork production as well as the pure lines (equivalent to breeds) used to produce them. The samples and data collected will enable the team to make use of the new DNA tools now being generated by genome sequencing as soon as they are developed. The rich dataset and results that will be generated will provide new tools to help develop better pork products and create new opportunities to develop novel approaches for pig breeding. This team is seeking to apply the latest methods developed in human biology to create new ways of improving the competitiveness of the Canadian pig breeding and production sectors. This approach is essential if Canada is to remain one of the world leaders for the selection, production and export of healthy pigs and pork.