Livestock Genetics and Phenotypic Trait Research
The Livestock Genetics and Phenotypic Trait Research laboratory utilizes the best molecular tools towards a better understanding of the genetically mediated regulation of economically important traits in livestock species including; beef cattle, dairy cattle and sheep. The traits examined include efficiency, immune function, disease resistance, beef quality, muscle growth, fertility, fecundity, longevity and recombination in male and female gametogenesis.
Research
- Characterizing the relationship between genetic and epigenetic variation with economically important biological traits.
- Exploit modern molecular and genetic technologies to further improve the understanding of how genomic variations affect biological processes of both undesirable (disease) and desirable (economically important) phenotypic traits.
Current projects
- Ruminant Telomere-to-telomere (RT2T)
- Development of genomic reference materials for cattle
- Animal Breeding-RCN: Farm Animal Genomics Collaborative
- Sheep and cattle pangenome
- Sheep and cattle pan epigenome
- Heat stress and fetal loss in cattle
- Meiotic recombination
- Olagunju TA, Rosen BD, Neibergs HL, Becker GM, Davenport KM, Elsik CG, Hadfield TD, Koren S, Kuhn KL, Rhie A, Shira K, Skibiel AL, Stegemiller MR, Thorne JW, Villamediana P, Cockett NE, Murdoch BM* and Smith TPL*. (*contributed equally) The first complete T2T Assemblies of Cattle and Sheep Y-Chromosomes uncover remarkable divergence in structure and gene content. (NatComm 2024)
- Kelson VC, Kiser JN, Davenport KM, Saurez EM, Murdoch BM, Neibergs HL. Identifying regions of the genome associated with conception rate to the first service of Holstein heifer bred by artificial insemination and as embryo transfer recipients AI. Genes (2024).
- Ambalavanan A, Chang L, Choi J, Zhang Y, Stickley SA, Fang ZY, Miliku K, Robertson B, Yonemitsu C, Turvey SE, Mandhane PJ, Simons E, Moraes TJ, Anand SS, Paré G, Williams JE, Murdoch BM, Otoo GE, Mbugua S, Kamau-Mbuthia EW, Kamundia EW, Gindola DK, Rodriguez JM, Pareja RG, Sellen DW, Moore SE, Prentice AM, Foster JA, Kvist LJ, Neibergs HL, McGuire MA, McGuire MK, Meehan CL, Sears MR, Subbarao P, Azad MB, Bode L, Duan Q. Human milk oligosaccharides are associated with maternal genetics and lung health of human milk-fed infants in the CHILD Cohort Study. (accepted Nature Communications [2024])
- Kalbfleisch T*, McKay SD*, Murdoch BM*, et al., Smith TPL. RT2T: a global collaboration project to study chromosomal evolution in the suborder Ruminantia. 2024-02-05 | Preprint DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3918604/v1 Nature Genetics (2024).
- Becker G, Thorne J, Burke JM, Lewis RM, Notter DR, Morgan JLK, Schauer CS, Stewart WC, Redden RR and Murdoch BM. Genetic diversity of United States Rambouillet, Katahdin and Dorper sheep. Genetic Selection Evolution (2024).
- Smitchger JA, Taylor JB, Mousel MR, Schaub D, Thorne JW, Becker GM, Murch BM. Genome-wide association with longevity and reproductive traits in U.S. rangeland ewes. Frontiers in Genetics (2024) DOI 10.3389/fgene.2024.1398123.
- Beik H, Murdoch BM, Park CA, Kern C, Konetchy D, Becker GM, Rincon G, Jiang H, Zhou H, Thorne JW, Koltes JE, Michal JJ, Davenport KM, Rijnkel M, Ross PJ, Hu R, Corum S, McKay S, Smith TPL, Liu W, Ma W, Zhang X, Xu X, Han X, Jiang Z, Hu Z, Reecy JM. Enhancing bovine genome annotation through nitration of transcriptomics and epi-transcriptomics datasets facilitates genomic biology. bioRxiv and 2022.10.05.510963. Giga Science (2024) 2024-01-02 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giae019.
- Thorne J., Redden R., Bowdridge S., Becker G., Khilji S., Xie S., Bently K., Murdoch B. Reducing Fecal Egg count through selective breeding alters the way Dorper lambs respond to Haemonchus contortus in an artificial challenge trial. Vet Parasitology (2024) Apr 3:328:110177 DOI: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2024.110177.
- Shira KA, Thornton KJ, Murdoch BM, Becker GM, Chibisa GE, Murdoch GK. Expression and secretion of SPARC, FGF-21 and DCN in bovine muscle cells: Effects of age and differentiation. PLoS One. (2024) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299975.
- Shira K, Murdoch BM, Thornton KJ, Reichhardt CC, Becker GM, Chibisa GE, Murdoch GK. Myokines Produced by Cultured Bovine Satellite Cells Harvested from 3- and 11-month-Old Angus Steers. Animals (2024) Jan 14(5) DOI:10.3390/ani14050709.
Share URL: uidaho.edu/cals/livestock-genetics
For more information, please contact:
Research scientists
- Temitayo Olagunju, Ph.D.
- Shangqian Xie, Ph.D.
- Gabrielle Becker, Ph.D.
- Katie Shira, Ph.D.
Recent alumni
Anna Rodriguez received her masters and is completing a doctorate in entomology at the U of I.
Gabrielle Becker received her master's and is currently working at the University of Idaho as a post doctoral fellow in goat immunogenetics.
Jacob Thorne received his doctorate at U of I and is now an assistant professor and Extension sheep and goat at Texas A&M.
