|
Principal Investigator: Dr. Raluca Mateescu
Mentor: Dr. Rory Todhunter
Contact Information: E-mail: rjt2@cornell.edu - Phone: 607-253-3249
Sponsor: USDA-National Research Initiative
Grant Number: 2005-35205-15476
Title: Detection of Quantitative Trait Loci Affecting Milk Production and Breeding out of Season Traits in Sheep
Annual Direct Cost: $101,946
Project Period: 04/01/05-03/31/07
Genetic improvement through traditional phenotypic selection has been an important contributor to advances in productivity that have been achieved in species of agricultural importance. While selection accuracy is high for simply inherited traits, selection for complex or quantitative traits is more difficult because they are controlled by numerous genes interacting with each other as well as with the environment. For many years, animal breeding schemes have operated without knowledge of the actual genes affecting the traits under selection, and genetic evaluations were entirely based on phenotypic data representing the combined effect of all genes contributing to the trait and the environment. Lamb and sheep milk enterprises can be efficient and profitable especially when the products (lamb and sheep cheese) are marketed to the large numbers of consumers in the ethnic population centers of the United States. This project will use a unique resource population specifically created to identify genes controlling these two complex traits and to assess candidate genes with the goal of providing more effective tools for selection of ewes that yield high amounts of milk and that breed out of season. Determining that certain alleles of candidate genes or that certain DNA markers are related to higher milk production or increased ability to breed and lamb out of season can help to identify basic biological mechanisms underlying milk production and reproduction. More practically, the knowledge of those alleles and markers can be used directly to intensify selection.
| 
