Genetics and Breeding of Small Ruminants

Dear Colleagues,

Accurate reference genome assemblies of the domestic small ruminant species sheep (Ovis aries) and goat (Capra hircus) became available in 2014 and 2017. Efforts of global collaboration from both the International Sheep Genomics Consortium (ISGC) as well as the International Goat Genome Consortium (IGGC) have generated these essential resources for advanced molecular studies in the field of genomics and genetics to improve selection of productive traits and animal health and welfare. The success of this recent development and the broad scientific interest into sheep and goat prompted us to open a Special Issue on this topic. Small ruminants were among the first animals to be domesticated and since that time adaptation, breed development, and selective breeding have provided us with unique and highly valuable resources for genetic studies. A sustainable increase in small ruminant production is desirable in order to meet the demands of the growing human population, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions suffering hard from global warming.

This Special Issue will cover all aspects of ovine and caprine genetics, including studies on domestication and breed development, genetic diversity in domesticated and wild small ruminant populations, genetic determinants of morphology and coat color, genetics of inherited disorders, genetics of disease susceptibility, and genetics of complex production traits including QTL detection. For the year 2021, the generation of high-quality de novo assemblies of individual sheep and goat genomes is announced by the ISGC (https://www.sheephapmap.org/) and IGGC (http://www.goatgenome.org/). Together with hundreds of publicly available individual short-read-based sheep and goat genomes, these recent developments open new opportunities for exciting research into ovine and caprine biology.

Prof. Dr. Cord Drögemüller
Prof. Dr. Gesine Lühken
Guest Editors