Livestock Genomics: The Odyssey

Frank Ruddle, a pioneering human geneticist, was often asked throughout the 1970s and 80s, “Why map genes?”   He frequently replied, “Gene mapping is good for you.”  Without a doubt, much of the early cartography of livestock genomes provided little more than personal gratification to a handful of investigators as we began to connect dots representing genomic elements by a succession of technologies that became available to us both before and after the advent of the molecular era.  Our major contribution to science prior to the 1990s was in our understanding of chromosomal evolution at a level of resolution beyond the observation of banded chromosomes.  The idea that genomic markers could be used to map quantitative traits and facilitate marker assisted selection in animals was championed by Morris Soller and others even before the discovery of microsatellites and their application to trait mapping in humans and domestic animals.  Nonetheless, the concept was not immediately accepted by agencies funding livestock research, or by many of the scientific stalwarts in quantitative genetics.  This presentation will focus on the evolution of animal genomics over the past two decades and the accompanying paradigm shift in both the political support for and scientific approaches to the genetic improvement of animals.