Genome-wide interaction analyses of milk production traits in dairy cattle

There is substantial evidence that the genetic background of milk production traits changes during lactation. It is known that the genetic variances for several milk production traits change during lactation and genetic correlations between milk production traits at different lactation stages differ from unity. In addition, for the diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) K232A polymorphism it has been shown that its effects on milk production traits are not constant during lactation. However, most genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for milk production traits do not account for changes in genetic effects during lactation. Therefore, these GWAS might miss QTL whose effects change during lactation. The objective of this thesis was to scan the whole genome for QTL whose effects on milk production traits change during lactation. First, 4 different GWAS approaches were performed to detect QTL with changing effects on protein content during lactation including an alternative approach; GWAS for genotype by lactation stage interaction. Results showed that the GWAS for genotype by lactation stage interaction identified significant regions that were not detected in GWAS assuming constant SNP effects during lactation. The GWAS for genotype by lactation stage interaction were performed for 7 other milk production traits. In total 7 genomic regions whose effects change during lactation exhibited significant genotype by lactation stage interaction effects. Therefore, GWAS for genotype by lactation stage interaction offered new possibilities to unravel the changes in genetic background of milk production traits. Changes in genetic effects in early lactation might be related to negative energy balance. Effects of pregnancy might cause changes in late lactation. Possible effects of pregnancy were further investigated by studying genotype by pregnancy interaction. Interestingly, the effects of pregnancy on milk production traits differed for DGAT1 genotypes. Finally, GWAS for genotype by season interaction were performed and identified major interaction signals on chromosomes 3 and 14 (DGAT1).