USDA National Needs Fellowship in the Development and Application of Quantitative Methods and Tools for Animal Genomics

ABQG Fellows 1999

Laura Grapes received a BS in Animal Science from Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA) in December 1998. She was admitted to the Interdepartmental Genetics program at Iowa State University in the fall of 1999. She rotated through the laboratories of Rohan Fernando, Max Rothschild, and Susan Lamont. In the fall of 2000 she chose to join the Rohan Fernando and Max Rothschild labs.

While a graduate student at Iowa State, Laura has attended Beef Improvement Federation Dec 1999; Poultry Breeders' Roundtable 2000; the 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production in 2002 in Montpellier, France where she presented thesis research involving linkage disequilibrium (LD)-based methods for fine mapping QTL; Gordon Research Conference on Quantitative Genetics and Genomics 2003; Midwest American Society of Animal Science in March 2000, 2001 and 2004 where she presented additional research involving LD-based methods for fine mapping QTL; National ADSA/ASAS August 2000 and July 2004 where she presented research describing a bioinformatics project that resulted in the development of an in silico SNP database for pigs and the discovery of high correlation between coding mutation density in human and pig genes. Laura presented posters at the Plant and Animal Genome IX and XII meetings in January 2001 and 2004.

Laura has published 6 refereed manuscripts, four of which she was first author and a fifth shared first authorship, including Grapes, L., J.C.M. Dekkers, M.F. Rothschild, and R.L. Fernando. 2004. Comparing linkage disequilibrium-based methods for fine mapping quantitative trait loci. Genetics 166:1561-1570. She currently has two other manuscripts in press, of which she is first author.

Laura completed her Ph.D. in February of 2004 with a minor in Statistics and was awarded an Iowa State University Research Excellence Award for her thesis work. She worked as a postdoctoral research associate with Max Rothschild for one year and has been working for Monsanto Choice Genetics, one of the major pig genetics companies in the US, for the past year.

Joseph McElroy received a BS in biology and a BS in mathematics along with minors in chemistry and physics from the University of Rio Grande in Ohio. He was admitted into the Interdepartmental Genetics Program at Iowa State University in the Fall of 1998. He rotated through the laboratories of Fernando Rohan, Jack Dekkers, Max Rothschild and Susan Lamont. In the Fall of 1999 Joe joined the Sue Lamont and Jack Dekkers labs.

During his Ph.D. program at ISU, Joe attended multiple scientific and industry meetings, including the ASAS Regional S99, S00, S01, S02, S03, and S04; Visions S99; PAG S00; Poultry Breeders Roundtable S00, S01, S02, S03, and S04; ASAS National Summer 00 (with a poster presentation); 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production in 2002 (with an oral presentation); John M. Airy Beef Cattle Symposium: Visions for Genetics and Breeding in 2003 (with a poster presentation); and Poultry Science Association, Annual Meeting in 2003 (with an oral presentation). Joe has published and presented several abstracts and papers at scientific meetings, including an Abstract for the National American Society of Animal Science in 2000, a paper in the Proc. 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production in 2002, and an abstract for the Poultry Science Association 92nd Annual meeting.

Joe was awarded the USDA National Needs International Study and Research Graduate Fellowship in 2002 and a professional advancement grant from Iowa State University in 2003.

Joe graduated with his Ph.D. in July of 2005. His thesis research involved close collaboration with two global breeding companies in poultry (Aviagen Inc. and Hy-Line Int.) and resulted in two publications in Poultry Science (84:1678-1688 and 85:593-605) and one manuscript that is under revision for Genetics, Selection, and Evolution. Joe is first author on all three publications.

Joe is currently a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Jorge Oksenberg in the Neurology Department at the University of California in San Francisco, where he conducts research on Multiple Sclerosis genetics and genomics.

PUBLISHED PAPERS BY PAST NATIONAL NEEDS FELLOWS

Gaboreanu, A.M., L. Grapes, A.M. Ramos, J.-J. Kim and M.F. Rothschild. 2004.Characterization of an X-chromosome PCR-RFLP marker associated with fat deposition and growth in the pig. Animal Genetics 35: 401-403.

Glenn K. L., L. Grapes, T. Suwanasopee, D. L. Harris, Y. Li, K. Wilson, and M. F. Rothschild. 2004. SNP analysis of alpha-AMY and CTSL genes in Litopenaeus vannamei and Penaeus monodon shrimp. Animal Genetics 36:235-236.

Grapes, L., and M.F. Rothschild. 2002. BMP15 maps to the X chromosome in swine. Animal Genetics 33:158-159.

Grapes, L., J.C.M. Dekkers, M.F. Rothschild, and R.L. Fernando. 2004. Comparing linkage disequilibrium-based methods for fine mapping quantitative trait loci. Genetics 166: 1561-1570.

Grapes, L., M. Malek, and M.F. Rothschild. 2001. Identification of monozygous twins and microsatellite mutation rate in pigs from QTL linkage analysis data. J. Anim. Breed. Genet. 118:311-316

Grapes, L., Y. Zhang, and M.F. Rothschild. 2002. Rapid communication: Physical and linkage mapping of the porcine connexin 37 (CX37) gene. J Anim Sci 80:1375-1376.

Grapes, L., M. Z. Firat, J. C. M. Dekkers, M. F. Rothschild, and R. L. Fernando. 2006. Optimal haplotype structure for linkage disequilibrium-based fine mapping of quantitative trait loci using identity-by-descent. Genetics 172: 1955-1965

Grapes, L., S. Rudd, R. L. Fernando, K. Megy, D. Rocha, and M. F. Rothschild. 2004. Prospecting for pig SNPs in the human genome: have we struck gold? J. Animal. Breed. Genet. (Accepted)

McElroy, J.P. , J. C. M. Dekkers, J.E. Fulton, N.P. O’Sullivan, M. Soller, E. Lipkin, W. Zhang, K. J. Koehler, S. J. Lamont, and H. H. Cheng. 2005. Microsatellite Markers Associated with Resistance to Marek’s Disease in Commercial Layer Chickens. Poultry Science 84: 1678-1688.

McElroy, J. P., J.-J. Kim, D. E. Harry, S. R. Brown, J. C. M. Dekkers, and S. J. Lamont. 2006. Identification of Trait Loci Affecting White Meat Percentage and Other Growth and Carcass Traits in Commericial Broiler Chickens. Poultry Science 85: 593-605.

McElroy, J.P., W. Zhang, K.J. Koehler, S.J. Lamont and J.C.M. Dekkers. 2006. Comparison of methods for analysis of selective genotyping survival data. Genetics, Selection, Evolution 38” 637-655.