Research team to ID genetic tools to boost cattle growth

Nebraska scientists have begun a federally funded study to deepen the understanding of links between genetics and cattle growth efficiency. The project has significant potential to expand the range of genetic tools used by breeders.

The study will focus on cattle’s mitochondria, cell components whose biochemical activity produces most of the body’s energy for cell function, according to a University of Nebraska news release.

Breeders use a variety of genetic data for their operations, but information from the mitochondrial genome of an animal is largely ignored. In this project, a five-person team of University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty and graduate students will aim to determine how variation in cattle’s mitochondrial genomes affects overall efficiency in animal growth.

As a result, said Jessica Petersen, associate professor of animal science, “Information on mitochondrial genotype will serve as a new tool for the selection of the most energy-efficient cows.” Those cows, in turn, “will produce calves with the same desirable mitochondrial genotype.”