This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Investigadores del CITA presentes en el proyecto de secuenciación del genoma ovino

The CITA researchers present at the sheep genome sequencing project

29/04/2011

on April 29, 2011

Researchers of the unit of technology in animal production of the Centre for research and technology food of Aragon (CITA), led by researcher Jorge Hugo Calvo Lacosta, participate in an international project that aims to the sequencing of the genome of the sheep.

This consortium, called the "International Sheep Genomics Consortium (ISGC)", is led by the Australian researcher of the CSIRO James Kijas, and is formed by several centres in 20 countries: United Kingdom, France, Greece, Germany, Austria, Finland, Norway, Spain, Italy, United States, Australia, New ZealandChina, Brazil, India, Kenya, Iran, Turkey, Israel and Argentina (http://www.sheephapmap.org/participants.php). In Spain two research groups participating in this project: researchers in the area of Genetics (Department of Animal production) of the University of León, directed by Juan José Arránz, and the appointment.

Last March the databases of GenBank (gene bank containing all the information of the DNA sequences) released version 2 of the sheep genome. However, although this version is a draft of the sheep genome more complete than the previous one, the annotation of genes (identification and decryption of the structure of the same) on the DNA sequence is still low. The achievement of the sheep DNA sequence is not more than the beginning of an exciting path that starts with the interpretation of the data obtained: annotation of genes, the study of the interactions between them, analysis of the proteomestudy of the implications of different genomic regions in productive character, quality of resistance to infectious or parasitic diseases in sheep cottage, and others.

Researchers of the appointment are involved with the native breed Rasa aragonesa, which chose animals not related and from the three Aragonese provinces. Another objective of this project is to know the variability of the sheep genome through a microchip (Ovine SNP50BeadChip), developed by the ISCG Consortium, 54.241 sequences of DNA that contains type SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms). The researcher Albert Martínez-Royo's team of the event, made a stay from 7 months in the laboratory led by Dr. James Kijas, with the aim of analysing the variability in the Rasa aragonesa, and learn the different methodologies of bioinformatics analysis using this microchip.

The use of this microchip can be a very powerful tool in genomic analysis of Association (WGA: Whole genome association Studies) with characters of economic interest in Rasa aragonesa, or related to human health. At the moment, there are two projects granted in the event that will use this methodology. One such project studies the relationships and interactions of food, genetics, and the quality of the meat in lamb (Rasa aragonesa) and lamb (churra tensin). The second project consists in the search for genomic regions associated with the reproductive seasonality in Rasa aragonesa.

Financing for the development of this activity has been received through research projects of Inia (Ministry of science and innovation) and the Government of Aragón (group emerging A-49).