Illumina signed a commercial agreement to develop a new multisample Bovine BeadChip to initially genotype over 10,000 cattle. Illumina’s recently released iSelect BeadChip allows the analysis of 12 samples in parallel on a single microarray with over 48,000 SNPs per sample. The SNP content will be developed in close collaboration with scientists from the 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 done at the Baylor College of Medicine, and SNP markers will be used by the participants to map quantitative trait loci and to selectively breed cattle. Following development of the new Bovine BeadChip and analysis of the initial batch of samples, Illumina plans to offer the new product in early 2007.
