Application of the method single-step in genomic selection for sexual precocity of Nellore heifers

Abstract

Reproductive traits are crucial to the economic efficiency of the production system in beef cattle and should be considered as objective selection in animal breeding programs. Despite the big advances in molecular biology techniques that allow the genotyping of the animals, other methodologies that allow the application of genomic data in animal breeding programs are being still developed. Nowadays, genomic evaluations that have been used are implemented using a procedure that involves several steps. Misztal et al. (2009), willing to simplify the procedure with several steps, proposed the Single-step methodology. The overall goal of this project is to evaluate statistical models to predict breeding values from genomic data aiming genomic selection for traits that indicate sexual precocity in Nellore heifers. Approximately 2,000 Nellore heifers will be genotyped, all with pedigree and performance information available. A panel of over 777,000 SNPs of HDBovineSNP BeadChip (High-Density Bovine BeadChip) will be used to genotype the animals. The genomic information will be analyzed considering four different methodologies that involve several steps, in addition the single-step methodology. (AU)