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Background: Beef cattle breeding programs in Brazil have placed greater emphasis on the genomic study of reproductive traits of males and females due to their economic importance. In this study, genome-wide associations were assessed for scrotal circumference at 210 d of age, scrotal circumference at 420 d of age, age at first calving, and age at second calving, in Canchim beef cattle. Data quality control was conducted resulting in 672,778 SNPs and 392 animals., Results: Associated SNPs were observed for scrotal circumference at 420 d of age (435 SNPs), followed by scrotal circumference at 210 d of age (12 SNPs), age at first calving (six SNPs), and age at second calving (four SNPs). We investigated whether significant SNPs were within genic or surrounding regions. Biological processes of genes were associated with immune system, multicellular organismal process, response to stimulus, apoptotic process, cellular component organization or biogenesis, biological adhesion, and reproduction., Conclusions: Few associations were observed for scrotal circumference at 210 d of age, age at first calving, and age at second calving, reinforcing their polygenic inheritance and the complexity of understanding the genetic architecture of reproductive traits. Finding many associations for scrotal circumference at 420 d of age in various regions of the Canchim genome also reveals the difficulty of targeting specific candidate genes that could act on fertility; nonetheless, the high linkage disequilibrium between loci herein estimated could aid to overcome this issue. Therefore, all relevant information about genomic regions influencing reproductive traits may contribute to target candidate genes for further investigation of causal mutations and aid in future genomic studies in Canchim cattle to improve the breeding program.

Background: Recent technological advances in genomics have allowed the genotyping of cattle through single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panels. High-density SNP panels possess greater genome coverage and are useful for the identification of conserved regions of the genome due to selection, known as selection signatures (SS). The SS are detectable by different methods, such as the extended haplotype homozygosity (EHH); and the integrated haplotype score (iHS), which is derived from the EHH. The aim of this study was to identify SS regions in Canchim cattle (composite breed), genotyped with high-density SNP panel., Results: A total of 687,655 SNP markers and 396 samples remained for SS analysis after the genotype quality control. The iHS statistic for each marker was transformed into piHS for better interpretation of the results. Chromosomes BTA5 and BTA14 showed piHS > 5, with 39 and nine statistically significant SNPs (P < 0.00001), respectively. For the candidate selection regions, iHS values were computed across the genome and averaged within non-overlapping windows of 500 Kb. We have identified genes that play an important role in metabolism, melanin biosynthesis (pigmentation), and embryonic and bone development., Conclusions: The observation of SS indicates that the selection processes performed in Canchim, as well as in the founder breeds (i.e. Charolais), are maintaining specific genomic regions, particularly on BTA5 and BTA14. These selection signatures regions could be associated with Canchim characterization.