A cattle graph genome incorporating global breed diversity

Despite only 8% of cattle being found in Europe, European breeds dominate current genetic resources. This adversely impacts cattle research in other important global cattle breeds, especially those from Africa for which genomic resources are particularly limited, despite their disproportionate importance to the continent’s economies.

To mitigate this issue, a new study has generated assemblies of African breeds, which have been integrated with genomic data for 294 diverse cattle into a graph genome that incorporates global cattle diversity.

Photo credit: A boy returns home with his family herd at dusk in Lhate Village, Chokwe, Mozambique (ILRI/Stevie Mann)