Domestication and selective breeding has resulted in over 1000 extant cattle breeds. Many of these breeds do not excel in important traits but are adapted to local environments. These adaptations are a valuable source of genetic material for efforts to improve commercial breeds. As a step toward this goal we identified candidate regions to be under selection in genomes of nine Russian native cattle breeds adapted to survive in harsh climates. After comparing our data to other breeds of European and Asian origins we found known and novel candidate genes that could potentially be related to domestication, economically important traits and environmental adaptations in cattle. The Russian cattle breed genomes contained regions under putative selection with genes that may be related to adaptations to harsh environments (e.g., AQP5, RAD50, and RETREG1). We found genomic signatures of selective sweeps near key genes related to economically important traits, such as the milk production (e.g., DGAT1, ABCG2), growth (e.g., XKR4), and reproduction (e.g., CSF2). Our data point to candidate genes which should be included in future studies attempting to identify genes to improve the extant breeds and facilitate generation of commercial breeds that fit better into the environments of Russia and other countries with similar climates.

Raw GGP HD150K SNP data for 9 Russian cattle breedsThis set includes 9 Russian cattle breeds genotyped on the GeneSeek HD150K SNP array. The breeds included are: Kalmyk, Buryat, Yakut, Kazakh Whiteheaded, Kostroma, Kholmogory, Bestuzhev, Yaroslavl, and Black Pied.Russian_cattle_150K_Dryad_9_breeds.zipGGP HD150K SNP data for 5 breeds of Asian originThis set includes autosomal genotypes for 3 Russian breeds of Asian origin on the GeneSeek HD150K SNP array (MAF<0.05): Kalmyk, Yakut, and Buryat combined with the sequence-based genotypes of Hanwoo and Illumina HD based genotypes of Japanese Black breeds.ASIA_Group_Dryad.zipGGP HD150K SNP data for 10 breeds of European originThis set includes autosomal genotyping data for 6 Russian breeds of European origin genotyped on the GeneSeeek HD150K SNP array (MAF<0.05): Bestuzhev, Black Pied, Kazakh Whiteheaded, Kholmogory, Kostroma, and Yaroslavl combined with sequence-based genotypes of Angus, Holstein, Jersey, and Fleckvieh from the 1000 bull genome project.EUR_Groups_1_2_Angus_Dryad.zip