BackgroundIncreased disease resistance through improved general immune capacity would be beneficial for the welfare and productivity of farm animals. T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood play an important role in immune capacity and disease resistance in animals. However, very little research to date has focused on quantitative trait loci (QTL) for T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood in swine.ResultsIn the study, experimental animals consist of 446 piglets from three different breed populations. To identify QTL for T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood in swine, the proportions of CD4+, CD8+, CD4+CD8+, CD4+CD8-, CD4-CD8+, and CD4-CD8- T cells and the ratio of CD4+:CD8+ T cells were measured for all individuals before and after challenge with modified live CSF (classical swine fever) vaccine. Based on the combined data of individuals from three breed populations, genome-wide scanning of QTL for these traits was performed based on a variance component model, and the genome wide significance level for declaring QTL was determined via permutation tests as well as FDR (false discovery rate) correction. A total of 27 QTL (two for CD4+CD8+, one for CD4+CD8-, three for CD4-CD8+, two for CD4-CD8-, nine for CD4+, two for CD8+, and eight for CD4+:CD8+ ratio) were identified with significance level of FDR < 0.10, of which 11 were significant at the level of FDR < 0.05, including the five significant at FDR < 0.01.ConclusionsWithin these QTL regions, a number of known genes having potential relationships with the studied traits may serve as candidate genes for these traits. Our findings herein are helpful for identification of the causal genes underlying these immune-related trait and selection for immune capacity of individuals in swine breeding in the future.

BackgroundMost recently, with maturing of bovine genome sequencing and high throughput SNP genotyping technologies, a large number of significant SNPs associated with economic important traits can be identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). To further determine true association findings in GWAS, the common strategy is to sift out most promising SNPs for follow-up replication studies. Hence it is crucial to explore the functional significance of the candidate SNPs in order to screen and select the potential functional ones. To systematically prioritize these statistically significant SNPs and facilitate follow-up replication studies, we developed a bovine SNP annotation tool (Snat) based on a web interface.ResultsWith Snat, various sources of genomic information are integrated and retrieved from several leading online databases, including SNP information from dbSNP, gene information from Entrez Gene, protein features from UniProt, linkage information from AnimalQTLdb, conserved elements from UCSC Genome Browser Database and gene functions from Gene Ontology (GO), KEGG PATHWAY and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA). Snat provides two different applications, including a CGI-based web utility and a command-line version, to access the integrated database, target any single nucleotide loci of interest and perform multi-level functional annotations. For further validation of the practical significance of our study, SNPs involved in two commercial bovine SNP chips, i.e., the Affymetrix Bovine 10K chip array and the Illumina 50K chip array, have been annotated by Snat, and the corresponding outputs can be directly downloaded from Snat website. Furthermore, a real dataset involving 20 identified SNPs associated with milk yield in our recent GWAS was employed to demonstrate the practical significance of Snat.ConclusionsTo our best knowledge, Snat is one of first tools focusing on SNP annotation for livestock. Snat confers researchers with a convenient and powerful platform to aid functional analyses and accurate evaluation on genes/variants related to SNPs, and facilitates follow-up replication studies in the post-GWAS era.

BackgroundMost recently, with maturing of bovine genome sequencing and high throughput SNP genotyping technologies, a large number of significant SNPs associated with economic important traits can be identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). To further determine true association findings in GWAS, the common strategy is to sift out most promising SNPs for follow-up replication studies. Hence it is crucial to explore the functional significance of the candidate SNPs in order to screen and select the potential functional ones. To systematically prioritize these statistically significant SNPs and facilitate follow-up replication studies, we developed a bovine SNP annotation tool (Snat) based on a web interface.ResultsWith Snat, various sources of genomic information are integrated and retrieved from several leading online databases, including SNP information from dbSNP, gene information from Entrez Gene, protein features from UniProt, linkage information from AnimalQTLdb, conserved elements from UCSC Genome Browser Database and gene functions from Gene Ontology (GO), KEGG PATHWAY and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA). Snat provides two different applications, including a CGI-based web utility and a command-line version, to access the integrated database, target any single nucleotide loci of interest and perform multi-level functional annotations. For further validation of the practical significance of our study, SNPs involved in two commercial bovine SNP chips, i.e., the Affymetrix Bovine 10K chip array and the Illumina 50K chip array, have been annotated by Snat, and the corresponding outputs can be directly downloaded from Snat website. Furthermore, a real dataset involving 20 identified SNPs associated with milk yield in our recent GWAS was employed to demonstrate the practical significance of Snat.ConclusionsTo our best knowledge, Snat is one of first tools focusing on SNP annotation for livestock. Snat confers researchers with a convenient and powerful platform to aid functional analyses and accurate evaluation on genes/variants related to SNPs, and facilitates follow-up replication studies in the post-GWAS era.

BackgroundIncreased disease resistance through improved general immune capacity would be beneficial for the welfare and productivity of farm animals. T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood play an important role in immune capacity and disease resistance in animals. However, very little research to date has focused on quantitative trait loci (QTL) for T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood in swine.ResultsIn the study, experimental animals consist of 446 piglets from three different breed populations. To identify QTL for T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood in swine, the proportions of CD4+, CD8+, CD4+CD8+, CD4+CD8-, CD4-CD8+, and CD4-CD8- T cells and the ratio of CD4+:CD8+ T cells were measured for all individuals before and after challenge with modified live CSF (classical swine fever) vaccine. Based on the combined data of individuals from three breed populations, genome-wide scanning of QTL for these traits was performed based on a variance component model, and the genome wide significance level for declaring QTL was determined via permutation tests as well as FDR (false discovery rate) correction. A total of 27 QTL (two for CD4+CD8+, one for CD4+CD8-, three for CD4-CD8+, two for CD4-CD8-, nine for CD4+, two for CD8+, and eight for CD4+:CD8+ ratio) were identified with significance level of FDR < 0.10, of which 11 were significant at the level of FDR < 0.05, including the five significant at FDR < 0.01.ConclusionsWithin these QTL regions, a number of known genes having potential relationships with the studied traits may serve as candidate genes for these traits. Our findings herein are helpful for identification of the causal genes underlying these immune-related trait and selection for immune capacity of individuals in swine breeding in the future.