A Viewable Whole Genome Resource with Four North American Moose Mapped to Cattle and Sheep

Moose have only recently colonized North America, having arrived less than 15,000 years ago via the Bering Land Bridge.  North American moose populations (Alces alces) are currently found in Alaska, Canada, the Rocky Mountains, and Northern New England.  Preliminary DNA sequence analyses of Alaskan and Wyoming moose indicated that, while populations of moose are geographically distant, their sequence diversity was low compared to other North American ruminants and livestock species. Our aim was to identify a common set of genome-wide single polymorphism (SNP) markers for use in conservation efforts and understanding population dynamics.  Four moose were sequenced (253 GB total) from three available subspecies: gigas (Alaska), shirasi (Idaho and Wyoming), and americana (Vermont). These reads were mapped to cattle and sheep reference genome assemblies. Tens of thousands of highly-informative biallelic SNPs were identified that had a minor allele frequency of 0.5, with all three possible genotypes present among the four animals.  A subset of these was filtered for being located in genes of interest and being evenly dispersed throughout the genome.  This subset of moose-specific SNP markers provides a starting point for developing commercial SNP-based DNA tests for use in forensic and disease traceback, parentage testing, and conservation efforts that require an increased understanding of moose population genetics and structure.  The resources generated from this work, including .bam files, are available at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=25590 (cattle) and http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=25712 (sheep).