A Genome Wide Association Scan of Bovine Tuberculosis Susceptibility in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cattle

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 7; no. 2; p. e30545
• Main Authors: Finlay, Emma K., Berry, Donagh P., Wickham, Brian, Gormley, Eamonn P., Bradley, Daniel G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 15.02.2012; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Animals; Artificial insemination; Association analysis; Biology; Bovidae; Cattle; Comparative analysis; Cytokines; Dairy cattle; Development and progression; Disease susceptibility; Dissection; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic research; Genome-Wide Association Study - veterinary; Genomes; Genomics; Genotype; Genotypes; Immune system; Infections; Male; Mycobacterium bovis; Mycobacterium bovis - pathogenicity; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Pathogens; Phenotype; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Power; Principal components analysis; Quantitative genetics; Reproduction (biology); Single nucleotide polymorphisms; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Taurine transporter; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis, Bovine - genetics; Veterinary medicine; Veterinary Science; United Kingdom > UK; Ireland
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030545

Bovine tuberculosis is a significant veterinary and financial problem in many parts of the world. Although many factors influence infection and progression of the disease, there is a host genetic component and dissection of this may enlighten on the wider biology of host response to tuberculosis. However, a binary phenotype of presence/absence of infection presents a noisy signal for genomewide association study. We calculated a composite phenotype of genetic merit for TB susceptibility based on disease incidence in daughters of elite sires used for artificial insemination in the Irish dairy herd. This robust measure was compared with 44,426 SNP genotypes in the most informative 307 subjects in a genome wide association analysis. Three SNPs in a 65 kb genomic region on BTA 22 were associated (i.e. p<10(-5), peaking at position 59588069, p = 4.02×10(-6)) with tuberculosis susceptibility. A genomic region on BTA 22 was suggestively associated with tuberculosis susceptibility; it contains the taurine transporter gene SLC6A6, or TauT, which is known to function in the immune system but has not previously been investigated for its role in tuberculosis infection.