Genome-wide association study of the de novo synthesized milk fatty acids based on Dutch, Danish and Chinese Holstein Friesians

Summary

Data for the de novo synthesized milk fatty acids (FAs) were obtained from milk samples of 1736 Dutch, 675 Danish and 784 Chinese Holstein Friesian cows and combined for multipopulation genome-wide association study (GWAS) using a mixed linear model. Results were compared with population specific GWAS undertaken for each population. In the combined analysis, QTL regions spread across 16 chromosomes were found significantly associated with the de novo synthesized FAs. Compared to the population-specific analyses, our multipopulation GWAS resulted in more regions showing significant associations for the de novo synthesized FAs, some of which were not previously reported.