EDINBURGH, U.K. — Fresh insights into the genetic code of sheep could aid breeding programmes to improve their health and productivity.
Scientists have mapped which genes are turned on and off in the different tissues and organs in a sheep’s body.
Their findings shed new light on the animal’s complex biology, including insight into the function of genes linked to immunity and meat quality.
Researchers say the insights could eventually inform animal breeding programmes aimed at improving farmers’ stocks.
Sheep have more than 20,000 different genes but not all of these are expressed in each tissue type in the body.
The team focused on genetic material called RNA, which is produced as an intermediate step when DNA code is translated into the proteins and molecules that make up cells and tissues.
RNA serves as a functional read-out of exactly which genes are expressed in which tissues at any one time.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute analysed the total RNA produced in each tissue of the sheep’s body.
Their results represent a major step towards understanding how the sheep’s genetic information influences its physical traits.
The findings also shed light on the function of hundreds of genes whose role was previously unknown.
An online database has been created from the results, which is freely accessible to scientists working anywhere in the world. The researchers hope this resource will help to further understanding of the sheep’s genetic make-up.
The project is a major contribution to the global Functional Annotation of ANimal Genomes (FAANG) initiative.
The study, published in PLOS Genetics, was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC). The Roslin Institute also receives strategic funding from the BBSRC.
Professor David Hume, of the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, who initiated the project, said: “This is largest resource of its kind. Ongoing comparative analysis will provide insights to help us understand gene function across all large animal species, including humans.”
Dr Emily Clark, of the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, who coordinated the project, said: “Sheep are a central part of the rural economy in the UK and are essential to sustainable agriculture across the globe. The new resource represents a major step towards understanding how the sheep’s genetic information influences its physical traits, and provides a foundation to use this information to generate sustainable improvements in the productivity of livestock animals.”
—University of Edinburgh
via EurekAlert!
For more articles on sheep, click here.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A number of innovations are available for licensing and commercialization through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. OTC has more than 50 innovations available to license on its website in the Agriculture category. Here are 12 of them. Each entry includes the innovation’s advantages over traditional options and potential applications. […]
DENVER — As it turns out, that rollercoaster ride American wool and sheep producers have been on the past couple of years was actually a Pacific Ocean wave that carried the American Sheep Industry Association into San Diego on Jan. 19-22 for its 157th Annual Convention: Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wave. The convention theme […]
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Scientists are honing the traits of speed, strength and near invulnerability in an important food crop that, much like a superhero, will help protect the vulnerable. Achieving a milestone in their pursuit of the Superman of sorghum plants, scientists identified a single gene that confers broad protection from the fungal diseases […]
CHICAGO — Manipulating RNA can allow plants to yield dramatically more crops, as well as increasing drought tolerance, announced a group of scientists from the University of Chicago, Peking University and Guizhou University. In initial tests, adding a gene encoding for a protein called FTO to both rice and potato plants increased their yield by […]
DENVER — Following one of the most difficult years in the history of the American sheep industry, Susan Shultz of Ohio has been elected to lead the American Sheep Industry Association as its next president. Shultz was unanimously elected during the final day of the sheep industry’s 156th Annual Convention on Jan. 29. Shultz had […]
