Vet World   Vol.11   April-2018  Article-20

Copy number variation in livestock: A mini review

Background and Aim: Copy number variation (CNV) is a phenomenon in which sections of the genome, ranging from one kilo base pair (Kb) to several million base pairs (Mb), are repeated and the number of repeats vary between the individuals in a population. It is an important source of genetic variation in an individual which is now being utilized rather than single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), as it covers the more genomic region. CNVs alter the gene expression and change the phenotype of an individual due to deletion and duplication of genes in the copy number variation regions (CNVRs). Earlier, researchers extensively utilized SNPs as the main source of genetic variation. But now, the focus is on identification of CNVs associated with complex traits. With the recent advances and reduction in the cost of sequencing, arrays are developed for genotyping which cover the maximum number of SNPs at a time that can be used for detection of CNVRs and underlying quantitative trait loci (QTL) for the complex traits to accelerate genetic improvement. CNV studies are also being carried out to understand the evolutionary mechanism in the domestication of livestock and their adaptation to the different environmental conditions. The main aim of the study is to review the available data on CNV and its role in genetic variation among the livestock.

Keywords: copy number variation, copy number variation regions, livestock, single nucleotide polymorphisms, quantitative trait loci.

How to cite this article: Bhanuprakash V, Chhotaray S, Pruthviraj DR, Rawat C, Karthikeyan A, Panigrahi M (2018) Copy number variation in livestock: A mini review, Veterinary World, 11(4): 535-541.

Received: 10-02-2018  Accepted: 31-03-2018     Published online: 26-04-2018

Corresponding author: V. Bhanuprakash   E-mail: bhanupvhn24@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.535-541

Copyright: Bhanuprakash, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.