ABSTRACT Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying complex traits in pigs is crucial for enhancing genetic gain via artificial selection and utilizing pigs as models for human disease and biology. Here, we conducted comprehensive genome-wide association studies (GWAS) followed by a cross-breed meta-analysis for 232 complex traits and a within-breed meta-analysis for 12 traits, using 28.3 million imputed sequence variants in 70 328 animals across 14 pig breeds. We identified 6878 quantitative t…

Abstract Transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) is a powerful approach for investigating the molecular mechanisms linking genetic loci to complex phenotypes. However, the complexity of the TWAS analytical pipeline, including the construction of gene expression reference panels, gene expression prediction, and association analysis using data from genome-wide association studies (GWASs), poses challenges for genetic studies in many species. In this study, we provide the Farm Animal Genotype-Tissue Expression (F…

Abstract Based on a pangenome graph platform, we simultaneously analyzed the impacts of SNPs and SVs in the population structure and phenotypic formation of global cattle using 2,409 individuals from 82 breeds. We demonstrated that SVs, like SNPs, effectively explain the population structure of global cattle. Genomic regions under strong selection, identified using both SNPs and SVs, consistently revealed footprints associated with human-mediated selection of economic traits in European improved cattle or natural …

Abstract Understanding the genetic and molecular architecture of complex traits and artificial selection is crucial for advancing sustainable precision breeding in cattle and other livestock. Yet, how genetic variation affects cellular gene expression remains elusive in cattle. Here, by integrating 8,866 bulk RNA-seq samples and 999,192 single cells of 81 cell types in 22 bovine tissues, we presented a comprehensive atlas of regulatory variants at the cell type resolution in cattle. By colocalizing with bulk-tissu…

Abstract Structural variation (SV) refers to a wide range of genetic variations that significantly affect genome biology and complex phenotypes. However, the population‐level SV landscape and its functional impacts on chickens are largely unknown. Here, we generated haplotype‐resolved genome assemblies for the Chinese Wenchang chicken and then integrated them with another 29 assemblies and 354 genome resequencing data to construct a pan‐genome graph for SV genotyping. We detected 185,205 high‐confidence SVs and fo…