Korea Hosts Regional Training Course on Selective Breeding and Gene Technologies

The course took place from 3 to 7 April, 2006. The workshop was organized by the National Livestock Research Institute (NLRI) in Suwon, Republic of Korea and hosted by the Nuclear Training Center (NTC) of the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in Daejeon.

The objective of the workshop was to to provide training on conventional breeding and molecular genetic techniques that could be used for genetic selection of animals and/or management of animal genetic resources. The main purpose was to transfer technologies that can be used to currently to identify the most valuable breeds and animals within breeds by using conventional techniques and to educate the participants on how gene technologies can complement and augment the effectiveness of these approaches. The aim is to use these methodologies for developing and using strategies to effectively breed indigenous livestock and increase their productivity. The training course was supported by two IAEA experts (Drs. Karen Marshall and Sang Hong Lee of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia). Sixteen participants from 12 countries participated in the workshop, and 3 local observers also attended parts of the course.

The training was a blend of theory and practical work. The emphasis in the theory classes was on conceptual background, principles of the methodologies, interpretation of the data, and use of the information generated for genetic evaluation of livestock, developing breeding programs, and using molecular markers for identifying genes associated with economically important traits. Practical classes, provided training on the use of software for analysis of phenotypic and molecular genetic data. The course also included a field trip to the Animal Genetic Resources Station of the NLRI in Namwon.

Resources:

Course materials can be downloaded from here in PDF format.

Lecture notes:
- Aspects of breeding program design
- Building blocks of quantitative genetics
- Response to selection I
- Response to selection II
- Properties of estimating breeding values
- Multiple trait selection
- Properties of BLUP EBVs
- BLUP animal model
- Inbreeding and optimal contribution theory
- Genetics of small populations
- Brief genome review
- Molecular markers and maps
- Use of molecular markers in breeding
- Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping
- Gene discovery

Reviews of interest:
- abstracts

Recent Summary Papers:
- Strategies for utilization of molecular genetic marker data for livestock genetic improvement in the developing world. John Gibson
- Genetic characterization of livestock populations and its use in conservation decision-making. Olivier Hanotte and Han Jianlin
- Genomic Selection: The future of marker assisted selection and animal breeding. Theo Meuwissen