Indian Scientists Complete World’s First Genome Study of Riverine Buffaloes

VADODARA/ ANAND: For the first time, scientists have completed a parent-wise genome assembly of buffalo in the country.

Anand-headquartered National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has developed a complete de novo (new) genome assembly named “NDDB_ABRO_Murrah” of riverine buffaloes.

Buffaloes contribute more than 50% to the total milk production in India which is world’s largest milk producer. The development of genome assembly will help in improving genetics of the buffaloes and enhancing their productivity further.

“Using this genome data, we can select the best of the animal for breeding purpose. At the same time, we can identify and eliminate genome disorders,” a scientist associated with the project told TOI.
“Buffaloes are most widely reared in developing countries for milk production. Developing a reference genome will help in better understanding of their biology and faster genetic improvement,” he added.
“This newly developed genome assembly will provide more insights about buffalo genome and desired impetus for implementing genomic selection programme in buffaloes to achieve faster genetic progress in Indian buffalo population,” said NDDB’s chairman Dilip Rath.

NDDB has already launched project – INDUSCHIP – customized genotyping chip for indigenous cattle and their crosses.

To ensure accuracy, the researchers had, for the first time, adopted the approach of trio binning for separating haplotypes (group of genes that are adopted together) of a buffalo using the trio of a father-mother-offspring. The genome assembly developed by NDDB has achieved more than 99% genome coverage.

The Murrah genome assemblies were submitted by NDDB scientists in US-based National Centre for Biotechnology Information database on April 25 – which is observed as World DNA Day. “This will certainly be a valuable resource for the world,” Dr Michael Schatz, a renowned scientist in genomics research said.

This buffalo genome shall be India’s contribution to genetic improvement of buffalo in the world. With this work, NDDB’s team of scientists have joined the league of a few elite genomic research teams in the world to have developed accurate and haplotype resolved genome.

Source: ToI

Image Courtesy: KunduDairyFarm