Highlander Lab

Genetics and breeding of global pig breeds in the era of mega-scale genomics

Led by Yu (Uni) Zhang

Summary

Modern breeding programmes generate large amounts of genomic data, revolutionising selective breeding. However, we are now at a stage where the amount of genomic data is overwhelming our analysis capacity. Furthermore, it's unclear how to leverage the vast information in whole-genome sequencing data for selective breeding. In this project, we will evaluate using ancestral recombination graphs (succinctly encoded with a tree sequence format) to manage and leverage whole-genome sequencing data in selective breeding. To this end, this project will focus on:

1) Study of population genetics of global pig breeding populations using tree sequence

​​​​​2) Analyse quantitative genetic variation in pig breeding populations using tree sequence

3) Optimise pig breeding programmes using tree sequence.

Image credit: Pexels under the PixaBay licence