A first comparative map of copy number variations in the sheep genome

• Published in: Genomics (San Diego, Calif.) Vol. 97; no. 3; pp. 158 - 165
• Main Authors: Fontanesi, L., Beretti, F., Martelli, P.L., Colombo, M., Dall'Olio, S., Occidente, M., Portolano, B., Casadio, R., Matassino, D., Russo, V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.03.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: aCGH; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Cattle; Chromosome Mapping; Chromosomes; Chromosomes - genetics; comparative genomic hybridization; Comparative Genomic Hybridization - methods; Comparative map; copy number; Copy number variation; Dairies; Diverse techniques; DNA Copy Number Variations - genetics; DNA microarrays; DNA probes; dual-purpose breeds; ewes; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; genes; Genes. Genome; Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution; Genome; goats; Laticauda; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Ovis aries; Ruminants; Sarda sarda; Sheep - genetics; Sheep breeds; Sheep breeds; Copy number variation; Ovis aries; Comparative map; aCGH; Ruminants; Genomics; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Sheep; Artiodactyla; Genome; Ungulata
• ISSN: 0888-7543; 1089-8646
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2010.11.005

We carried out a cross species cattle–sheep array comparative genome hybridization experiment to identify copy number variations (CNVs) in the sheep genome analysing ewes of Italian dairy or dual-purpose breeds (Bagnolese, Comisana, Laticauda, Massese, Sarda, and Valle del Belice) using a tiling oligonucleotide array with ~ 385,000 probes designed on the bovine genome. We identified 135 CNV regions (CNVRs; 24 reported in more than one animal) covering ~ 10.5 Mb of the virtual sheep genome referred to the bovine genome (0.398%) with a mean and a median equal to 77.6 and 55.9 kb, respectively. A comparative analysis between the identified sheep CNVRs and those reported in cattle and goat genomes indicated that overlaps between sheep and both other species CNVRs are highly significant (P < 0.0001), suggesting that several chromosome regions might contain recurrent interspecies CNVRs. Many sheep CNVRs include genes with important biological functions. Further studies are needed to evaluate their functional relevance.