BovReg Final Conference
About the conference
The BovReg final conference was held at the University Foundation in Brussels on 14- 15 February 2024. It showcased a comprehensive 2-day agenda to report and discuss, with both main actors of the research community and industry, the achievements and impacts of the project. The conference also included the celebration of 10 years of FAANG, providing the US and Australian perspectives. It was overall attended by 120 people, 40 in presence and 80 online.
Final Conference agenda
Videos and presentations available
Day 1 – Sessions:
Christa Kühn (FBN) – Overview of the BovReg Project – PDF presentation (please contact liguori@eaap.org/riccardo@eaap.org)
Cattle Genome Annotation
- Gabriel Costa (University of Liege) – Building a cattle high-quality epigenome map: the BovReg contribution – PDF presentation (please contact liguori@eaap.org/riccardo@eaap.org)
- Lijing Tang (University of Liege) – GWAS reveals determinants of mobilization rate and dynamics of an active endogenous retrovirus of cattle – PDF presentation
In vitro Models
- Arpna Sharma (FBN) – Isolation and characterization of (primary) bovine luteal cells – PDF presentation
- Doreen Becker (FBN) Structural and functional characterization of five bovine cell lines – PDF presentation
- Marion Schmicke (TiHo) – Modelling of Animal cells for Research – PDF presentation
Bioinformatic Tools and Databases
- Peter Harrison (EMBL-EBI) – EuroFAANG Data Infrastructure: standardizing and presenting BovReg and, global FAANG, data – PDF presentation
- José Espinosa-Carrasco (CRG) – BovReg contribution to the adoption of nf-core as the EuroFAANG computational standard – PDF presentation
- Bjorn Langer (CRG) – Functional data extrapolation across species
Epigenome Sensitivity
- Jens Vanselow (FBN) – Effects of summer heat on in vitro fertility performance and possible epigenetic mechanisms of intergenerational transmission to offspring bulls – PDF presentation
- Gabriel Costa (University of Liege) – Monitoring of environmental effects on the (epi)genome of bovine embryos: a view on chromatin accessibility – PDF presentation (please contact liguori@eaap.org/riccardo@eaap.org)
Global non-livestock perspectives
- Fergal Martin (EMBL-EBI) – Moving towards Pangenomics: Lessons learned from the human pangenome – PDF presentation
US FAANG Perspective
- James Koltes (Iowa University) – Perspectives and Discoveries from the US Bovine FAANG project – PDF presentation
Day 2 – Sessions:
Industry Perspective of FAANG
- Clotilde Patry (ELIANCE) – From improved knowledge on (epi)genome to improved genomic selection tools: benefits and expectation for the cattle breeding industry
- Ruidong Xiang (Agricultural Victoria Research) – Identifying regulatory variants to enhance mapping and prediction of cattle traits – PDF presentation
Molecular and Zootechnical Phenotype Variation
- Marie Pierre Sanchez (INRAE) – Meta-GWAS for beef production traits – PDF presentation
- Goutham Sahana (Aarhus University) – Meta-GWAS reveals biologically relevant candidate genes for mastitis resistance in dairy cattle – PDF presentation
- Birgit Gredler (WUR) – GWAS for feed intake and methane emission across cattle populations – PDF presentation
- Praveen Chitneedi (FBN) – Comprehensive BovReg eQTL Nextflow workflow and application on BovReg data sets – PDF presentation
Detection of regulatory genes and variants
- Hiroaki Taniguchi (IGBZ PAN) – Functional Validation of SNPs in Specific Traits by Utilizing Molecular Tools – PDF presentation
- Siddarth Jayaraman (UEDIN) – Detecting phenotype-associated genes by combining gene expression and GWAS summary statistics – PDF presentation
Application of Genomic Variant Information into Cattle Breeding
- Emre Karaman (Aarhus University) – Biology-informed genomic predictions for mastitis in Danish Jersey and Nordic Red cattle – PDF presentation
- Renzo Bonifazi (WUR) & Marzieh Heidaritabar (University of Alberta) – Biology-driven WGS genomic predictions for feed efficiency within and across-breeds – PDF presentation
- Didier Boichard (INRAE) – Genomic evaluation including genomic feature information in the Montbéliarde and Normande breeds – PDF presentation
- Arash Chegini (LUKE) – Multiple-trait single-step genomic prediction of udder health traits in Nordic Red and Jersey cattle applying alternative SNP weighting – PDF presentation
The Ethical and Societal Dimensions of Genome Information Assisted Breeding: the Importance of Public Engagement
- Koen Kramer (University of Utrecht) – Ethical game changers and grains of sand: on how to do ethics of livestock breeding – PDF presentation
- Donald Bruce (EDINETHICS) and Ann Bruce (UEDIN) – Playing the BovReg Democs Game: What did people say about cattle breeding? – PDF presentation
Invited talks from
- Sigbjørn Lien (NMBU) – AQUA-FAANG: Advancing European Aquaculture by Genome Functional Annotation
- Elisabetta Giuffra (INRAE) – Aims, results and impacts of H2020 GENE-SWitCH (The regulatory GENomE of SWine and Chicken: functional annotation during development) – PDF presentation
- Amanda Chamberlain (Agricultural Victoria Research) – Which functional information is useful for prioritization of causal variants for complex traits? – PDF presentation (please contact liguori@eaap.org/riccardo@eaap.org)
- Yuliaxis Ramayo (IRTA) – Decoding Ruminant Microbiomes: Ongoing Contributions of the HoloRuminant Project
EuroFAANG RI Ambitions
- Klaus Wimmers (FBN) – EuroFAANG – An Infrastructure for Farmed Animal Genotype to Phenotype Research in Europe – PDF Presentation
European Commission advice and support
- Jimena Arango-Montanez (Research Executive Agency) – D&E commitments and support services for BovReg – PDF presentation
Carole Charlier (University of Liege), Elisabetta Giuffra (INRAE), Amanda Chamberlain (Agricultural Victoria Research), James Koltes (Iowa University), Christa Kühn (FBN) – Panel discussion: Future of Functional Annotation beyond BovReg