3SR: Sustainable Solutions For Small Ruminants – Responding To The Pace Of Change

3SR is a three year project (from 2010) aimed at mining genomic information of sheep and goats to improve our understanding of the genetic basis of mastitis susceptibility, nematode resistance (sheep & goats) and ovulation rate (sheep only). Working closely with the International Sheep Genomics Consortium (ISGC) and the International Goat Genome Consortium (IGGC) has allowed adaption of the project strategy to take best advantage of the recent advancements in sheep and goat genomic resources.  As part of the project, high density (50k) genotypes were available for 7500 sheep across 12 populations. A total of 30 QTL across three breeds were found to be associated with higher Somatic Cell Counts. Most were breed specific but common regions were identified on chromosomes 3, 14 and 20. The approach used for nematode resistance was to conduct joint analyses of three large independent datasets, using contrasting analytical approaches, to seek regions of common significance. Strong statistical evidence was identified for 8 common QTL across breeds, of which the MHC region and a region on chromosome 12 were the most prominent. For ovulation rate the main focus was on using a homozygosity mapping approach targeted at breeds with known high prolificacy. The approach, followed by targeted sequencing in both the French Grivette and Polish Olkuska breeds has allowed the identification of two separate amino acid substitutions in the BMP15 gene (one in each breed) that are associated with higher prolificacy. Acknowledgement. ‘’3SR’’ is funded by the European Commission (FP7/2007-2013), agreement no. 245140.