Climate Genomics for Farm Animal Adaptation

ClimGen is a project that focuses on the identification and use of 'omics technology for building livestock resilience to climate change. Bringing together previous and ongoing national, EU and global efforts to understand livestock adaptation to climatic extremes, the project will seek to identify genomic tools and biomarkers that can be used to predict adaptation in livestock populations to thermal and related challenges. Alongside scientific investigation, ClimGen will also develop and assess the efficacy of modified breeding strategies that use 'omics information to rapidly equip livestock populations with the resilience that will be required to withstand the predicted negative effects of climate change in the short, medium and long-term. ClimGen will also act as a source of relevant information for Stakeholders, who will both participate in and influence the development of the project.

ClimGen's activities can be divided into three. First we will carry out a data-mining and gap filling exercise for identifying genomic targets of selection in cattle, sheep and goat populations that occur in challenging climates throughout Europe and in northern and central Africa. Replicated climate contrast data will be analysed from across Europe, including new samples in the Carpathian region, data for cattle and sheep in the extreme north and data for sheep and goats in the extreme south (Morocco). In this way ClimGen will make maximum use of data that have already been generated but not analysed to detect adaptation across climates and will only concentrate on producing data in hotspot regions where it is most needed.

Second, we will carry out three case study experiments to find biomarkers of climate adaptation within the transcriptome and epigenome. These studies will analyse contrasting systems and seek to detect profile changes in 1) sheep and goats in contrasting thermal environments, 2) in pigs under thermal stress with controlled temperature environments and 3) in red-legged partridges under immune and thermal stress. Biomarker responses will be compared among these diverse systems and compared with the selection targets identified in the first activity.

Finally, these data will be used in an assessment of new strategies for breeding climate resilience into livestock populations using state-of-the-art simulations, assuming different approaches such as admixture and genomic selection, which will be compared with more traditional breeding methods in terms of their comparative efficiency over short, medium and longer timescales.

Using a combination of existing and new genomic datasets, ClimGen will use cutting-edge analytical approaches to identify genetic signatures of adaptation to environments selected to provide contrasting climates but also in environmental contexts that are expected to become more common in Europe under currently climate change predictions during this century. Large-scale genomic datasets are either already available or in the last stages of production that are available to the ClimGen consortium, due to the involvement of Partners in relevant projects.

While genomic signatures of selection provide a view of ongoing evolutionary processes under climate change, it is also necessary to understand the responses of populations under climate stress under short time-scales. The use of omics tools to understand, for example, changes in gene expression and epigenomic modification potentially provide a window on adaptive mechanisms that do not occur over an evolutionary timescale. To address this issue, ClimGen will examine three contrasting case studies (sheep, pigs and partridge) that encapsulate different approaches to understanding the influence of climate stress on biological systems responses.

When climate change calls for new adaptations, the swift implementation of breeding and management strategies designed to cope with this challenge will be essential. This may take the form of breed replacement or modification and a major change in production systems for which ideal breeds may not yet exist. Within ClimGen we will evaluate the costs and benefits, using the data we have acquired and will produce, of alternative strategies for breeding mediated adaptation under climate stress. We will evaluate strategies for traditional selection within breeds, the replacement of currently breeds with different, climate adapted populations and compare these with an 'omically-informed' strategy whereby additional traits are identified from our work and others.

Not applicable.