Bovine Polledness – An Autosomal Dominant Trait with Allelic Heterogeneity

The persistent horns are an important trait of speciation for the family Bovidae with complex morphogenesis taking place briefly after birth. The polledness is highly favourable in modern cattle breeding systems but serious animal welfare issues urge for a solution in the production of hornless cattle other than dehorning. Although the dominant inhibition of horn morphogenesis was discovered more than 70 years ago, and the causative mutation was mapped almost 20 years ago, its molecular nature remained unknown. Here, we report allelic heterogeneity of the POLLED locus. First, we mapped the POLLED locus to a ∼381-kb interval in a multi-breed case-control design. Targeted re-sequencing of an enlarged candidate interval (547 kb) in 16 sires with known POLLED genotype did not detect a common allele associated with polled status. In eight sires of Alpine and Scottish origin (four polled versus four horned), we identified a single candidate mutation, a complex 202 bp insertion-deletion event that showed perfect association to the polled phenotype in various European cattle breeds, except Holstein-Friesian. The analysis of the same candidate interval in eight Holsteins identified five candidate variants which segregate as a 260 kb haplotype also perfectly associated with the POLLED gene without recombination or interference with the 202 bp insertion-deletion. We further identified bulls which are progeny tested as homozygous polled but bearing both, 202 bp insertion-deletion and Friesian haplotype. The distribution of genotypes of the two putative POLLED alleles in large semi-random sample (1,261 animals) supports the hypothesis of two independent mutations

Whole-genome analysis of introgressive hybridization and characterization of the bovine legacy of Mongolian yaks

The yak is remarkable for its adaptation to high altitude and occupies a central place in the economies of the mountainous regions of Asia. At lower elevations, it is common to hybridize yaks with cattle to combine the yak’s hardiness with the productivity of cattle. Hybrid males are sterile, however, preventing the establishment of stable hybrid populations, but not a limited introgression after backcrossing several generations of female hybrids to male yaks. Here we inferred bovine haplotypes in the genomes of 76 Mongolian yaks using high-density SNP genotyping and whole-genome sequencing. These yaks inherited ~1.3% of their genome from bovine ancestors after nearly continuous admixture over at least the last 1,500 years. The introgressed regions are enriched in genes involved in nervous system development and function, and particularly in glutamate metabolism and neurotransmission. We also identified a novel mutation associated with a polled (hornless) phenotype originating from Mongolian Turano cattle. Our results suggest that introgressive hybridization contributed to the improvement of yak management and breeding

A Sensor-based Interaction for Ubiquitous Virtual Reality Systems

In this paper, we propose a sensor-based interaction for ubiquitous virtual reality (U-VR) systems that users are able to interact implicitly or explicitly with through a sensor. Due to the advances in sensor technology, we can utilize sensory data as a means of user interactions. To show the feasibility of the proposed method, we use ComposAR as a test-bed that is a script-based interaction authoring tool for augmented reality (AR) systems. By adding sensor-based interaction features to ComposAR, a user can interact with virtual 3D contents through a sensor. We believe that the proposed method provides natural user interactions for UVR systems

TAP - the Architectural Playground: a C++ Framework for Scalable Distributed Collaborative Architectural Virtual Environments

Architecture is built information [1]. Architects have the task of restructuring and translating information into buildable designs.The beginning of the design process, where the briefing is transformed into an idea, is a crucial phase in the design process. It is where the architect makes decisions that influence the rest of the design development process [2]. It is at this stage where most information is unstructured but has to be integrated into a broad context. This is where TAP is positioned - to support the architect in finding solutions through the creation of spatially structured information sets without impairing creative development.We want to enrich the inspiration of an architect with a new kind of information design. A further aspect is workflow in a distributed process where the architect's work becomes one aspect of a decentralised working pattern. The software supports collaborative work with models, sketches and text messages within a uniform environment. The representations of the various media are connected and combined with each other and the user is free to combine them according to his or her needs