Functional genomics to advance dairy cattle health

UMN-UMB

Research Team 5

Main objective
Utilize state-of-the-art technologies in functional genomics to identify genetic factors affecting bovine clinical mastitis.

Sub goals
• Detect and ascribe function to genes that are differentially expressed in two selection lines of dairy cattle
• Develop genetic linkage analysis of genome wide expression patterns as a method to elucidate gene-gene interactions in biochemical, metabolic, regulatory and developmental pathways
• Combine marker information with gene expression data to identify genes and pathways underlying the genetic differences in mastitis and milk production

The project involves establishment of collaboration between the partners, strengthening competence in functional genomics, immunology, bioinformatics and genetics. Such competence is a prerequisite for the institutions to keep pace with up-front research on animal health and for giving high-quality research based education.

The team
• Principal investigator at UMN: Assoc. prof. Scott C. Fahrenkrug
• Principal investigator at UMB: Prof. Sigbjørn Lien
• Other team members USA: John Garbe,, Graduate student
• Other team members Norway: Siri Kulberg (Researcher) and Marte Sodeland (PhD)

Research projects
• Funding from Norway: BoviBank AS to Fahrenkrug lab, 2005 “Lab supplies and Bioinformatics support” ($30,455)
• Funding from Norway: Norwegian Research Council to Sigbjørn Lien, 2004, “Bilateral cooperation” ($82,210)
• Funding from Norway: Norwegian Research Council award, 2006-09, “A genome expression profiling strategy towards better disease control and improved animal welfare”, NFR 173206/I10. Includes a research fellowship 2008-10 and a PhD fellowship 2007-2010.
• Funding from USA: USDA to Fahrenkrug lab, 2004-2006 “Construction, Characterization and Application of a Bovine Oligo Microarray “($124,544)
• Funding from USA: USDA to Fahrenkrug lab, 2007- 2009 “Bovine Genome Database - A Community Informatics Resource” ($108,823)

Industry partners
• In USA: None
• In Norway: BoviBank AS/Geno

Researcher exchange, incl. PostDoc and PhD
• From Norway to USA: Siri Kulberg two times to UMN

Student exchange (MSc)
• From Norway to USA: None

Scientific papers
John R. Garbe, Christine G. Elsik, Eric Antoniou, James M. Reecy, Karl J. Clark, Anand Venkatraman, Jae-Woo Kim, Robert D. Schnabel, C. Michael Dickens, Russell D. Wolfinger, Scott C. Fahrenkrug and Jeremy F. Taylor (2010) Development and Application of Bovine and Porcine Oligonucleotide Arrays with Protein Based Annotation. In press Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology

Scientific reports
2007, Report submitted by Fahrenkrug to Bovibank and UAB

2010 (Feb), Report submitted by Fahrenkrug to UMB, awaiting integrative analysis.

Published: 10.04.08
Updated: 29.10.10
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Cooperation UMN-UMB

Cooperation between University of Minnesota (UMN) and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB). Contact persons:

Claudia Schmidt-Dannert

Professor, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics

College of Biological Sciences, St. Paul, UMN

Office Phone: 612/625-5782

Ragnhild Solheim

Research Director, UMB

Office Phone: +47 6496 6191