Chinese team improves animal genomic breeding technology

Xianan cattle are seen at a Xianan cattle farm in Biyang County of Zhumadian, central China's Henan Province, Jan. 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Xu Yanan)

WUHAN, March 7 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese scientific research team has developed a software package called "HIBLUP" following five years of study, according to the Huazhong Agricultural University on Tuesday. The software helps improve big data calculations for genomic breeding.

The findings have been published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

The team led by Zhao Shuhong, a professor at the university's college of animal science and technology, said that during analysis, HIBLUP completed the fastest computations while using the lowest memory among tested software. It also said that the greater the number of individuals that are genotyped using HIBLUP, the greater the computational benefits.

Zhao said HIBLUP is suitable for big data genomic breeding calculations, and it can carry out genomic selection and matching calculations independently.