Livestock Genetics and Phenotypic Trait Research
The Livestock Genetics and Phenotypic Trait Research laboratory utilizes the best molecular tools towards a better understanding of the genetically mediated regulation of economically important traits in livestock species including; beef cattle, dairy cattle and sheep. The traits examined include efficiency, immune function, disease resistance, beef quality, muscle growth, fertility, fecundity, longevity and recombination in male and female gametogenesis.
Research
- Characterizing the relationship between genetic and epigenetic variation with economically important biological traits.
- Exploit modern molecular and genetic technologies to further improve the understanding of how genomic variations affect biological processes of both undesirable (disease) and desirable (economically important) phenotypic traits.
Current projects
- Ruminant Telomere-to-telomere (RT2T)
- Development of genomic reference materials for cattle
- Animal Breeding-RCN: Farm Animal Genomics Collaborative
- Sheep and cattle pangenome
- Sheep and cattle pan epigenome
- Heat stress and fetal loss in cattle
- Meiotic recombination
- Cantrell B, Lachance H, Murdoch B, Sjoquist J, Funston R, Weaber T McKay S. Global DNA methylation in the limbic system of cattle. Epigenomes (2019) 3(2).
- Davenport K, McKay S, Fahey A, Gill C, Murdoch B. Meiotic recombination differences in rams from three breeds of sheep in the U.S. Cytogenet Genome Res (2018) Oct. 9.
- Peer N, Law S, Murdoch B, Goulding E, Eddy E, Kim K. Germ cell-specific retinoic acid receptor alpha functions in germ cell organization, meiosis, and spermatogonia. Endocrinology (2018) Aug. 6.
- Davenport KM, Duan M, Hunter SS, New DD, Fagnan MW, Highland MA, Murdoch BM. Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of bighorn sheep. Genome Announcements (2018) June 7;6(23).
- Kalbfleisch TS, Murdoch BM, Smith TPL, Murdoch JD, Heaton MP and McKay SD. A SNP resource for studying North American moose. F1000 Research (2018) 13501.
- Murdoch BM, Murdoch GK, Greenwood S, McKay S. Nutritional influence on epigenetic marks and effects on livestock production. Frontiers in Genetics, (2016) Oct. 24;7: 182.
Share URL: uidaho.edu/cals/livestock-genetics
For more information, please contact:
Research scientists
- Temitayo Olagunju, Ph.D.
- Shangqian Xie, Ph.D.
- Gabrielle Becker, Ph.D.
- Katie Shira, Ph.D.
Recent alumni
Kimberly Davenport received a doctorate from U of I in 2021 and is currently an assistant professor at Washington State University.
Jacob Thorne received his doctorate at U of I and is now an assistant professor and Extension sheep and goat at Texas A&M.
Gabrielle Becker received her master's and is currently working at the University of Idaho as a post doctoral fellow in goat immunogenetics.
Anna Rodriguez received her masters and is completing a doctorate in entomology at the U of I.
Morgan Stegemiller received her master's at U of I in 2021 and currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Idaho.
