Whole-Genome-Based Web Genomic Resource for Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Area of Science:

• Genomics
• Animal Science
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are vital livestock globally, providing milk, meat, and labor.
• Genomic data for diverse buffalo breeds remains underexplored despite advances in sequencing technology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create the first comprehensive, user-friendly web genomic resource for water buffalo.
• To analyze and catalogue genomic variations (SNPs, InDels) and non-coding RNAs across five key breeds.

Main Methods:

• Utilized genomic data from five commercially important buffalo breeds: Mediterranean, Egyptian, Bangladesh, Jaffrabadi, and Murrah.
• Extracted and catalogued Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), Insertions/Deletions (InDels), Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs), and various non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs).

Main Results:

• Developed BuffGR (http://backlin.cabgrid.res.in/buffgr/), a web resource containing 6,028,881 SNPs and 613,403 InDels from 31 tissues.
• Identified 7,727,122 SNPs and 634,124 InDels across four breeds relative to the Mediterranean breed.
• Catalogued 4,504,691 SSR markers, 1,458 circRNAs, 37,712 lncRNAs, and 938 miRNAs.

Conclusions:

• BuffGR provides a valuable global resource for water buffalo research, facilitating marker-trait association and genetic diversity studies.
• The catalogued genomic markers and ncRNAs can support buffalo improvement, disease management, and traceability applications.