Qiyuan Ma , Xiaofang Lin

Tropical Animal Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Animal Molecular Breeding, 2024, Vol. 14, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/amb.2024.14.0004
Received: 09 Nov., 2023    Accepted: 27 Dec., 2023    Published: 19 Jan., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ma Q.X., and Lin X.F., 2024, From GWAS to breeding practice: genetic research on improving milk production in cattle, Animal Molecular Breeding, 14(1): 27-35 (doi: 10.5376/amb.2024.14.0004)

With the increasing global demand for dairy products, improving milk production in dairy cows has become one of the major objectives of animal husbandry. In this study, the genetic basis of milk production in dairy cows was analyzed in depth by Genome-wide association study (GWAS) method. Genomic data from thousands of dairy cows were collected in this study and several genetic markers significantly associated with milk yield were identified. These findings not only reveal key genes that influence milk yield, but also provide new directions for breeding practices. How the GWAS results can be applied to practical breeding, including the use of Marker-assisted selection (MAS) and Genomic selection (GS) techniques to improve selection efficiency, is further discussed. This study also discusses how to balance the goals of genetic diversity conservation and improved milk production during breeding, and the potential of emerging biotechnologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 in dairy cattle breeding. This study emphasizes the importance of sustainable breeding strategies and the need to consider ethical and social acceptability in the breeding process.

Genome-wide association studies; Cow milk production; Marker-assisted selection; Genomic selection (GS); CRISPR/Cas9