Illumina to Develop iSelect Bovine BeadChip with Three Collaborating Institutions

Illumina, Inc. has announced that it has signed a commercial agreement to develop a multi-sample Bovine BeadChip that uses the Infinium™ assay to initially genotype over 10,000 cattle.

Illumina's recently released iSelect genotyping BeadChip is designed to allow the analysis of twelve samples in parallel with over 48,000 SNP markers per sample, on a single microarray.

SNP content will be developed in close collaboration with scientists at three organizations: the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) and the University of Alberta (UA).

The SNP content will utilize the release of the bovine draft sequence and recent genome assembly (Btau 3.0) done at the Baylor College of Medicine.

The SNP markers will be used by the participants to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and to selectively breed cattle.

Following development of the Bovine BeadChip and analysis of the initial batch of samples, Illumina plans to offer the product in early 2007 as a standard catalog array that can be purchased and used by any customer.

Drs. Curt Van Tassell and Tad Sonstegard (USDA), Jerry Taylor (MU) and Stephen Moore (UA) are guiding the SNP content selection and are leading the Infinium genotyping efforts at their respective organizations.

Collectively, the organizations will genotype over 10,000 cattle samples representing at least 10 different breeds.

"With the recent release of the Bovine genome assembly and sequence, the development of a high-quality comprehensive bovine SNP array is the next critical step," stated University of Alberta's Dr. Moore.

"My colleagues and I are very excited to collaborate with Illumina on the development of such an important bovine array."

"With Illumina, we will be able to take advantage of the most complete genetic map of the bovine genome to date to provide an optimized SNP array to the bovine genomics community."

"DNA differences detected through genotyping will expand gene discovery for better meat and milk production and quality, enable modeling of human disease and will shed light on the relationships between different populations of animals."

"This will be an invaluable contributing tool combined with the recent sequence release for genetics and genomics research in agriculture and medicine."

Dr. Taylor commented further, "Outbred populations of domestic cattle have the most extensively recorded pedigree and phenotype histories of any of mankind's close relatives."

"This wealth of information is an untapped reservoir with the potential for immense benefits to the health and well-being of our species."

"Illumina's iSelect Bovine BeadChip will help tap this resource with a phenomenal range of applications across the scientific spectrum which will include elucidating the history of domestication of cattle and their close relatives, examining the evolution of genomes under strong selection and, of course, the discovery of elements responsible for phenotypic variation in disease, growth and development."

According to Jay Flatley, Illumina President and CEO, "We're very pleased to be able to work with such a remarkable group of investigators who share a single vision."

"We believe this collaborative effort will result in a tool of significant value to the cattle breeding community and serve as an instructive model for improved breeding of other agricultural species."