PSVII-10 - Characterization of recombination in a small highly inbred beef cattle population

Abstract: Meiotic recombination increases genetic variation which is essential for survival and adaptation of eukaryote populations. Recombination is not well characterized in small, inbred beef cattle populations. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate and characterize recombination in a small highly inbred beef cattle population and compare it to a less inbred composite cattle population. The data consisted of 1020 Line 1 Hereford and 3420 composite (50% Red Angus, 25% Charolais, 25% Tarentaise) genotyped with 50K SNP chip panel. Crossover events were calculated by comparing the haplotypes of offspring to those of their parents. The composite population had higher recombination than the inbred population. Further, the average genetic recombination distance was 0.83 cM/Mb for the composite and 0.71 cM/Mb for Line 1. Furthermore, several recombination hot spots were detected in Line 1 and the composite population. Clearly, inbreeding led to less recombination events which could be due to the long homozygous segments hindering the detection of recombinant haplotypes.