• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제27권11호
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• pp.1532-1539
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• 2014

Although growth rate is one of the main economic traits of concern in pig production, there is limited knowledge on its epigenetic regulation, such as DNA methylation. In this study, we conducted methyl-CpG binding domain protein-enriched genome sequencing (MBD-seq) to compare genome-wide DNA methylation profile of small intestine and liver tissue between fast- and slow-growing weaning piglets. The genome-wide methylation pattern between the two different growing groups showed similar proportion of CpG (regions of DNA where a cytosine nucleotide occurs next to a guanine nucleotide in the linear sequence) coverage, genomic regions, and gene regions. Differentially methylated regions and genes were also identified for downstream analysis. In canonical pathway analysis using differentially methylated genes, pathways (triacylglycerol pathway, some cell cycle related pathways, and insulin receptor signaling pathway) expected to be related to growth rate were enriched in the two organ tissues. Differentially methylated genes were also organized in gene networks related to the cellular development, growth, and carbohydrate metabolism. Even though further study is required, the result of this study may contribute to the understanding of epigenetic regulation in pig growth.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.142-149
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• 2010

In recent years, genome-wide association (GWA) studies have successfully led to many discoveries of genetic variants affecting common complex traits, including height, blood pressure, and diabetes. Although GWA studies have made much progress in finding single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with many complex traits, such SNPs have been shown to explain only a very small proportion of the underlying genetic variance of complex traits. This is partly due to that fact that most current GWA studies have relied on single-marker approaches that identify single genetic factors individually and have limitations in considering the joint effects of multiple genetic factors on complex traits. Joint identification of multiple genetic factors would be more powerful and provide a better prediction of complex traits, since it utilizes combined information across variants. Recently, a new statistical method for joint identification of genetic variants for common complex traits via the elastic-net regularization method was proposed. In this study, we applied this joint identification approach to a large-scale GWA dataset (i.e., 8842 samples and 327,872 SNPs) in order to identify genetic variants of obesity for the Korean population. In addition, in order to test for the biological significance of the jointly identified SNPs, gene ontology and pathway enrichment analyses were further conducted.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.14.1-14.4
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• 2022

Permutation testing is a robust and popular approach for significance testing in genomic research that has the advantage of reducing inflated type 1 error rates; however, its computational cost is notorious in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Here, we developed a supercomputing-aided approach to accelerate the permutation testing for GWAS, based on the message-passing interface (MPI) on parallel computing architecture. Our application, called MPI-GWAS, conducts MPI-based permutation testing using a parallel computing approach with our supercomputing system, Nurion (8,305 compute nodes, and 563,740 central processing units [CPUs]). For 10⁷ permutations of one locus in MPI-GWAS, it was calculated in 600 s using 2,720 CPU cores. For 10⁷ permutations of ~30,000-50,000 loci in over 7,000 subjects, the total elapsed time was ~4 days in the Nurion supercomputer. Thus, MPI-GWAS enables us to feasibly compute the permutation-based GWAS within a reason-able time by harnessing the power of parallel computing resources.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.129-134
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• 2013

Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is defined by a 20-mm Hg difference of systolic blood pressure (dtSBP) and/or a 10-mm Hg difference of diastolic blood pressure (dtDBP) between supine and standing, and OH is associated with a failure of the cardiovascular reflex to maintain blood pressure on standing from a supine position. To understand the underlying genetic factors for OH traits (OH, dtSBP, and dtDBP), genome-wide association studies (GWASs) using 333,651 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were conducted separately for two population-based cohorts, Ansung (n = 3,173) and Ansan (n = 3,255). We identified 8 SNPs (5 SNPs for dtSBP and 3 SNPs for dtDBP) that were repeatedly associated in both the Ansung and Ansan cohorts and had p-values of < $1{\times}10^{-5}$ in the meta-analysis. Unfortunately, the SNPs of the OH case control GWAS did not pass our p-value criteria. Four of 8 SNPs were located in the intergenic region of chromosome 2, and the nearest gene (CTNNA2) was located at 1 Mb of distance. CTNNA2 is a linker between cadherin adhesion receptors and the actin cytoskeleton and is essential for stabilizing dendritic spines in rodent hippocampal neurons. Although there is no report about the function in blood pressure regulation, hippocampal neurons interact primarily with the autonomic nervous system and might be related to OH. The remaining SNPs, rs7098785 of dtSBP trait and rs6892553, rs16887217, and rs4959677 of dtDBP trait were located in the PIK3AP1 intron, ACTBL2-3' flanking, STAR intron, and intergenic region, respectively, but there was no clear functional link to blood pressure regulation.

• Animal Bioscience
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.191-199
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• 2023

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genes associated with nine reproduction and morphological traits in three breed populations of Chinese goats. Methods: The genome-wide association of nine reproduction and morphological traits (litter size, nipple number, wattle, skin color, coat color, black dorsal line, beard, beard length, and hind leg hair) were analyzed in three Chinese native goat breeds (n = 336) using an Illumina Goat SNP50 Beadchip. Results: A total of 17 genome-wide or chromosome-wide significant SNPs associated with one reproduction trait (litter size) and six morphological traits (wattle, coat color, black dorsal line, beard, beard length, and hind leg hair) were identified in three Chinese native goat breeds, and the candidate genes were annotated. The significant SNPs and corresponding putative candidate genes for each trait are as follows: two SNPs located on chromosomes 6 (CSN3) and 24 (TCF4) for litter size trait; two SNPs located on chromosome 9 (KATNA1) and 1 (UBASH3A) for wattle trait; three SNPs located on chromosome 26 (SORCS3), 24 (DYM), and 20 (PDE4D) for coat color trait; two SNPs located on chromosome 18 (TCF25) and 15 (CLMP) for black dorsal line trait; four SNPs located on chromosome 8, 2 (PAX3), 5 (PIK3C2G), and 28 (PLA2G12B and OIT3) for beard trait; one SNP located on chromosome 18 (KCNG4) for beard length trait; three SNPs located on chromosome 17 (GLRB and GRIA2), 28 (PGBD5), and 4 for hind leg hair trait. In contrast, there were no SNPs identified for nipple number and skin color. Conclusion: The significant SNPs or genes identified in this study provided novel insights into the genetic mechanism underlying important reproduction and morphological traits of three local goat breeds in Southern China as well as further potential applications for breeding goats.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.48.1-48.6
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• 2019

Over the last decade, genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have provided an unprecedented amount of genetic variations that are associated with various phenotypes. However, previous GWAS were mostly conducted in European populations, and these biased results for non-Europeans may result in a significant reduction in risk prediction for non-Europeans. An issue with the early GWAS was the winner's curse problem, which led to misleading results when constructing the polygenic risk scores (PRS). Therefore, more non-European population-based studies are needed to validate reported variants and improve genetic risk assessment across diverse populations. In this study, we validated 422 variants independently associated with glycemic indexes, liver enzymes, and type 2 diabetes in 125,872 samples from a Korean population, and further validated the results by assessing publicly available summary statistics from European GWAS (n = 898,130). Among the 422 independently associated variants, 284, 320, and 361 variants were replicated in Koreans, Europeans, and either one of the two populations. In addition, the effect sizes for Koreans and Europeans were moderately correlated (r = 0.33-0.68). However, 61 variants were not replicated in both Koreans and Europeans. Our findings provide valuable information on effect sizes and statistical significance, which is essential to improve the assessment of disease risk using PRS analysis.

• 한국작물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국작물학회 2017년도 9th Asian Crop Science Association conference
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• pp.58-58
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• 2017

The advent of next generation sequencing technology has elicited plenty of sequencing data available in agriculturally relevant plant species. For most crop species, it is too expensive to obtain the whole genome sequence data with sufficient coverage. Thus, many approaches have been developed to bring down the cost of NGS. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) is a cost-effective genotyping method for complex genetic populations. GBS can be used for the analysis of genomic selection (GS), genome-wide association study (GWAS) and constructing haplotype and genetic linkage maps in a variety of plant species. For efficiently dealing with plant GBS data, the TASSEL-GBS pipeline is one of the most popular choices for many researchers. TASSEL-GBS is JAVA based a software package to obtain genotyping data from raw GBS sequences. Here, we describe application of GBS and bioinformatics pipeline of TASSEL-GBS for analyzing plant genetics data.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.121-126
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• 2011

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative joint disorder in the elderly population. To identify OA-associated genetic variants and candidate genes, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS). A total 3,793 samples (476 cases: wrist + knee and 3317 controls) from a community-based epidemiological study were genotyped using the Affymetrix SNP 5.0. An intronic SNP (rs4789934) in the TIMP2 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2) showed the most significance with OA (odd ratio [OR] = 2.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.52-2.81, p = $4.01{\times}10^{-6}$). Furthermore, a poly-morphism (rs1352677) in the NKAIN2 ($Na^+/K^+$ transporting ATPase interacting 2) was suggestively associated with OA (OR = 1.43, CI = 1.22-1.66, p = $7.01{\times}10^{-6}$). The present study provides new insights into the identification of genetic predisposing factors for OA.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제28권6호
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• pp.771-781
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• 2015

Thoroughbred, a relatively recent horse breed, is best known for its use in horse racing. Although myostatin (MSTN) variants have been reported to be highly associated with horse racing performance, the trait is more likely to be polygenic in nature. The purpose of this study was to identify genetic variants strongly associated with racing performance by using estimated breeding value (EBV) for race time as a phenotype. We conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study to search for genetic variants associated with the EBV. In the first stage of genome-wide association study, a relatively large number of markers (~54,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) were evaluated in a small number of samples (240 horses). In the second stage, a relatively small number of markers identified to have large effects (170 SNPs) were evaluated in a much larger number of samples (1,156 horses). We also validated the SNPs related to MSTN known to have large effects on racing performance and found significant associations in the stage two analysis, but not in stage one. We identified 28 significant SNPs related to 17 genes. Among these, six genes have a function related to myogenesis and five genes are involved in muscle maintenance. To our knowledge, these genes are newly reported for the genetic association with racing performance of Thoroughbreds. It complements a recent horse genome-wide association studies of racing performance that identified other SNPs and genes as the most significant variants. These results will help to expand our knowledge of the polygenic nature of racing performance in Thoroughbreds.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제31권6호
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• pp.568-573
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• 2021

본 연구는 전장 유전체 연관성 분석(genome-wide association study, GWAS)을 통해 ERp29의 mRNA 발현과 관련된 유전좌위(expression quantitative trait loci, eQTL)을 식별하는 것을 목표로 하였다. 대상 유전자는 ERp29이다. ERp29는 소포체(ER)의 lumen에 단백질의 folding & assembly 기능을 가진 분자 chaperone 단백질로서 소포체 스트레스에 의해 발현량이 증가하며, 분비 단백질의 생합성에 관여한다. 최근 연구 결과 발암과 연관성이 알려지면서 주목을 받고 있다. 총 373명의 유럽인의 genome을 대상으로 GWAS 분석 결과, ERp29 유전자 발현은 정소와 뇌에서 강하게 발현하는 long noncoding RNA (LncRNA) LOC105372577과 관계가 있었다. 즉, 3개의 eQTL: rs6138266 (p<4.172e10-9), rs62193420 (p<1.173e10-8), rs6138267 (p<2.041e10-8)와 연관성이 깊은 것으로 밝혀졌다. ERp29의 발현과 연관이 있는 것으로 확인된 3개의 eQTL을 사용한 transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) 결과 osteosarcoma amplified 9 (OS9) 발현과 유의한 연관성을 보이며 OS9 유전자의 up-stream에 upstream of transcription factor 1 (USF1)이 결합할 수 있는 것을 알았다.