A locus conferring tolerance to Theileria infection in African cattle

Wragg, D. et al. (2022) A locus conferring tolerance to Theileria infection in African cattle. PLoS Genetics, 18(4), e1010099. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010099) (PMID:35446841) (PMCID:PMC9022807)

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Abstract

East Coast fever, a tick-borne cattle disease caused by the Theileria parva parasite, is among the biggest natural killers of cattle in East Africa, leading to over 1 million deaths annually. Here we report on the genetic analysis of a cohort of Bos indicus (Boran) cattle demonstrating heritable tolerance to infection with T. parva (h2 = 0.65, s.e. 0.57). Through a linkage analysis we identify a 6 Mb genomic region on bovine chromosome 15 that is significantly associated with survival outcome following T. parva exposure. Testing this locus in an independent cohort of animals replicates this association with survival following T. parva infection. A stop gained variant in a paralogue of the FAF1 gene in this region was found to be highly associated with survival across both related and unrelated animals, with only one of the 20 homozygote carriers (T/T) of this change succumbing to the disease in contrast to 44 out of 97 animals homozygote for the reference allele (C/C). Consequently, we present a genetic locus linked to tolerance of one of Africa’s most important cattle diseases, raising the promise of marker-assisted selection for cattle that are less susceptible to infection by T. parva.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:Funding: This research was conducted as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock. ILRI is supported by contributors to the CGIAR Trust Fund. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 Research Centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners across the globe (www.cgiar. org). Some of the work described in this paper was supported by grant BB/H009515/1 awarded jointly by the then UK Department for International Development and the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) under the Combating Infectious Diseases of Livestock for International Development (CIDLID) program to WIM and PGT. This research was funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and with UK aid from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Grant Agreement OPP1127286) under the auspices of the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH), established jointly by the University of Edinburgh, SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College), and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). This work was also supported by funding from the BBSRC (BBS/E/D/30002275) to JGDP. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Auty, Harriet
Creator Roles:
Auty, H.Conceptualization, Writing – review and editing
Authors: Wragg, D., Cook, E. A. J., Latré de Laté, P., Sitt, T., Hemmink, J. D., Chepkwony, M. C., Njeru, R., Poole, E. J., Powell, J., Paxton, E. A., Callaby, R., Talenti, A., Miyunga, A. A., Ndambuki, G., Mwaura, S., Auty, H., Matika, O., Hassan, M., Marshall, K., Connelley, T., Morrison, L. J., Bronsvoort, B. M. d., Morrison, W. I., Toye, P. G., and Prendergast, J. G. D.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
Journal Name:PLoS Genetics
Publisher:Public Library of Science
ISSN:1553-7390
ISSN (Online):1553-7404
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2022 Wragg et al.
First Published:First published in PLoS Genetics 18(4):e1010099
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence

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