Genetic architecture of individual variation in recombination rate on the X-chromosome in cattle

Meiotic recombination is an essential biological process that ensures proper chromosome segregation and creates genetic diversity. Individual variation in global recombination rates has been shown to be heritable in several species and variants significantly associated with this trait have been identified. Recombination on the sex chromosome has often been ignored in these studies although this trait may be particularly interesting as it may correspond to a biological process distinct from that on autosomes. For instance, recombination in males is restricted to the pseudo-autosomal region (PAR). We herein used a large cattle pedigree with more than 100,000 genotyped animals to improve the genetic map of the X-chromosome and to study the genetic architecture of individual variation in recombination rate on the sex-chromosome (XRR). The length of the genetic map was 46.4 and 121.2 cM in males and females, respectively, but the recombination rate in the PAR was 6 times higher in males. The...