Association analysis of the constructed linkage maps covering TLR2 and TLR4 with clinical mastitis in Norwegian Red cattle

Summary

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are important cell-surface molecules mediating immune responses. Previous studies have identified TLR2 and TLR4 as potential candidate genes for disease resistance. In this study, dense linkage maps comprising single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been constructed for the chromosomal regions harbouring TLR2 and TLR4 on bovine chromosome 17 and 8. The most likely marker orders for both regions were compared with the corresponding human map positions and used to reorder bovine scaffolds available from the bovine genome sequence assembly (Btau_3.1). A combined linkage and linkage disequilibrium method was used to investigate possible associations between the TLR genes and mastitis susceptibility recorded in the Norwegian Red cattle population. The analysis did not detect any significant association between the chromosomal regions surrounding TLR2 and TLR4 and mastitis in Norwegian Red cattle.