Year: 2025
Type: data-paper
Abstract: Native cattle breeds in Europe are vital to agricultural heritage and livestock production, combining adaptation to diverse environments with desirable traits such as high-quality beef and milk. To investigate genetic diversity, local adaptation, and productivity-related characteristics, we generated whole-genome sequences from 289 cattle representing 11 native breeds and the commercial Holstein-Friesian breed across Finland, the Netherlands, and Portugal. These breeds span diverse climates and management systems, from cold northern regions to Mediterranean environments in southern Europe. The dataset comprises over 11 terabytes of paired-end Illumina NovaSeq6000 sequencing data, with an average depth of ~10 × and an alignment rate of ~99.7% against the ARS-UCD1.2 and 2.0 cattle reference genomes. Variant calling identified about 30 million SNPs and 2.7 million small indels distributed unevenly across the genome. Annotation linked many variants to known genes. This genomic resource provides an important foundation for studying genomic diversity, environmental adaptation, small structural variants discovery, and genomic mapping of economically important traits, offering insights for future breeding and conservation programs in European cattle.
Source: Scientific Data
Authors: Catarina Ginja, Junxin Gao, Juha Kantanen, Nasser Ghanem, Donald Kugonza, Mahlako Makgahlela, Ana Elisabete Pires, Anabel Usié, Bert Dibbits, Carolina Bruno de Sousa, Daniel Gaspar, Daniil Ruvinskiy, Etske Bijl, Hauke Smidt, Heli Lindeberg, Henk Bovenhuis, Kimberley Laport, Kisun Pokharel, Ludmilla Blaschikoff, Melak Weldenegodguad, Rayner Gonzalez Prendes, Rodney Okwasiimire, Silvia Guimarães, Ying Lui, Richard P. M. A. Crooijmans
Institutions: Universidade do Porto, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Wageningen University & Research, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Cairo University, Makerere University, University of the Free State, Animal Production Institute, Agricultural Research Council of South Africa, Universidade Lusófona, University of Évora, Centro de Biotecnologia Agrícola e Agro Alimentar do Alentejo, Instituto Mediterrâneo para a Agricultura Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, University of Lisbon, Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal, University of Helsinki
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,490
OpenAlex ID: W4416947505