Landscape genomics: application in poultry breeding

Description

Landscape genomics has become an important tool to study the neutral genetic structure of populations and to identify loci and genomic regions under natural or artificial selection. The understanding of the actions of selection on the genome and their association with specific environmental and landscape factors provides an excellent opportunity to further understand the mechanisms involved in natural selection and the possibility for using identified adaptive loci and genome segments in the enhancement of genetic improvement programs of livestock species. This is especially the case for backyard chickens in several developing countries. These local ecotypes are well adapted to their local environmental conditions and landscape genomics could be used to identify and integrate these adaptive loci into sustainable and efficient breeding programs. Continuous decrease in the economic and logistic costs associated with the collection of genomic and environmental information will further favor the implementation of the landscape genomics approach.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Landscape genetics 3 Population genomics 4 Landscape genomics 5 Implementation of landscape genomics 6 Landscape genomics in natural and livestock populations 7 The potential use of landscape genomics in the genetic improvement of backyard chickens 8 Conclusions and future trends 9 References