Candidate genes associated with heat stress and breeding strategies to relieve its effects in dairy cattle: a deeper insight into the genetic architecture and immune response to heat stress

Frontiers in Veterinary Science

Veterinary Science

Giovanna De Matteis¹  Destaw Worku²  Jamal Hussen³  Mohanned Naif Alhussien⁴  Benjamin Schusser⁴ 

[1] Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, CREA Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, Monterotondo, Rome, Italy;Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Food and Climate Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara, Ethiopia;Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia;Reproductive Biotechnology, TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany;

关键词: heat stress;    dairy cattle;    genomic regions;    candidate genes;    immune response;    heat tolerance;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fvets.2023.1151241

 received in 2023-01-25, accepted in 2023-08-31,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The need for food products of animal origin is increasing worldwide. Satisfying these needs in a way that has minimal impact on the environment requires cutting-edge technologies and techniques to enhance the genetic quality of cattle. Heat stress (HS), in particular, is affecting dairy cattle with increasing frequency and severity. As future climatic challenges become more evident, identifying dairy cows that are more tolerant to HS will be important for breeding dairy herds that are better adapted to future environmental conditions and for supporting the sustainability of dairy farming. While research into the genetics of HS in the context of the effect of global warming on dairy cattle is gaining momentum, the specific genomic regions involved in heat tolerance are still not well documented. Advances in omics information, QTL mapping, transcriptome profiling and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified genomic regions and variants associated with tolerance to HS. Such studies could provide deeper insights into the genetic basis for response to HS and make an important contribution to future breeding for heat tolerance, which will help to offset the adverse effects of HS in dairy cattle. Overall, there is a great interest in identifying candidate genes and the proportion of genetic variation associated with heat tolerance in dairy cattle, and this area of research is currently very active worldwide. This review provides comprehensive information pertaining to some of the notable recent studies on the genetic architecture of HS in dairy cattle, with particular emphasis on the identified candidate genes associated with heat tolerance in dairy cattle. Since effective breeding programs require optimal knowledge of the impaired immunity and associated health complications caused by HS, the underlying mechanisms by which HS modulates the immune response and renders animals susceptible to various health disorders are explained. In addition, future breeding strategies to relieve HS in dairy cattle and improve their welfare while maintaining milk production are discussed.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Worku, Hussen, De Matteis, Schusser and Alhussien.