Data from: Signatures of positive selection in African Butana and Kenana dairy zebu cattle

Butana and Kenana are two types of zebu cattle found in Sudan. They are
unique amongst African indigenous zebu cattle because of their high milk
production. Aiming to understand their genome structure, we genotyped 25
individuals from each breed using the Illumina BovineHD Genotyping
BeadChip. Genetic structure analysis shows that both breeds have an
admixed genome composed of an even proportion of indicine (0.75 ± 0.03 in
Butana, 0.76 ± 0.006 in Kenana) and taurine (0.23 ± 0.009 in Butana, 0.24
± 0.006 in Kenana) ancestries. We also observe a proportion of 0.02 to
0.12 of European taurine ancestry in ten individuals of Butana that were
sampled from cattle herds in Tamboul area suggesting local crossbreeding
with exotic breeds. Signatures of selection analyses (iHS and Rsb) reveal
87 and 61 candidate positive selection regions in Butana and Kenana,
respectively. These regions span genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL)
associated with biological pathways that are important for adaptation to
marginal environments (e.g., immunity, reproduction and heat tolerance).
Trypanotolerance QTL are intersecting candidate regions in Kenana cattle
indicating selection pressure acting on them, which might be associated
with an unexplored level of trypanotolerance in this cattle breed. Several
dairy traits QTL are overlapping the identified candidate regions in these
two zebu cattle breeds. Our findings underline the potential to improve
dairy production in the semi-arid pastoral areas of Africa through
breeding improvement strategy of indigenous local breeds.