Get, set, gau!

Around a decade ago, the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), Hyderabad, was tasked with documenting genetic variations in all indigenous breeds of cattle (Bos indicus) in the country. Scientists took blood samples from 43 breeds and then identified the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that caused variations, revealing the distinct traits of each breed. An SNP occurs when a nucleotide is replaced in a single position within a DNA sequence and is a common cause of variations within a species.

"The phenomenal data that the project generated is yielding several new tools for use in cattle breeding," notes Subeer S. Majumdar, under whose directorship at NIAB the project was launched in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "The first outcome of the project was the creation of the IndiGau, a chip that encodes nearly 8 lakh SNPs or markers, for various traits like high milk yield, disease resistance, or the makings of an elite bull," adds Majumdar, now the head of Gujarat Biotechnology University, Gandhinagar.