Objective
The project aims to demonstrate how the farm animal breeding industry can utilise gene mapping technology to accelerate genetic improvement. The technology has been developed in recent years partly as a result of EC RTD funding e.g. Pig Gene Mapping Project (PiGMaP and PiGMaP 2 funded under EC Framework III programmes). However, even when this information has been used to identify important loci controlling economic traits the industry has been unable to apply the results. For example, Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) for fat and growth in the pig were identified and the results published in 1994 (Andersson et al., Science 263:1771) yet this information has not been utilised by the target industry (pig breeding organizations). Similar examples could be provided for the other farm animal species, as indicated by the EC Farm Animal Industrial Platform (Proposal on Future Lines of Research, June 1996). It is clear therefore that there is a gap in the capability of the European farm animal breeding industry to utilise this new technology. The primary aim of this project will be to establish a "route map" for the application of research findings, that will enable efficient, rapid conversion of the primary information to exploitable tools. The project is designed to prove the effectiveness of the technology with work focused on two main tasks:
(1.) We will screen commercially relevant populations for segregation at QTLs identified in experimental populations. We propose to focus on growth and carcass traits since for these traits several QTLs have recently been reported in the pig. But the technology is generic and demonstration of its effectiveness for these traits will show its application to other traits and species The work will be important for specifying future strategies for finding economically valuable QTLs.
(2.) We will show how marker assisted back-crossing can be used to introgress a QTL allele from one breed to another. The work will focus on a major fatness QTL on pig chromosome 4 previously identified in a wild pig/Large White intercross (Andersson et al., 1994. Science 263:1771). The end result is not designed to be a commercially viable product in its own right, but the process will validate a number of points of major importance for the exploitation of QTLs in livestock.
These objectives are fully consistent with area 3.2.1 of the Biotechnology work programme in that they concern the use and extension of established genetics maps for QTL analysis in relation to the improvement of the quality of production. This demonstration is extremely timely as new RTr mapping projects were initiated for poultry and cattle in 1996. The issues described in this proposal will also apply to these species unless the steps proposed here are taken. It is thus anticipated that the project deliverables (such as the commercial route map) will provide a basis for rapid technology transfer to animal breeding organizations in general.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics chromosomes
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Coordinator
751 24 UPPSALA
Sweden
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