Current status of the ovine genome map

Abstract

Genome maps in livestock species have been under development for the last decade. While the sheep map is one of the least advanced for livestock, the amount of available information is noteworthy, in light of the paucity of funding and personnel devoted to this project. These limited resources have been strategically aligned to take advantage of information from the human, mouse and bovine mapping and sequencing efforts. The resulting ovine linkage and physical maps have greatly enhanced the search for genes controlling important traits in sheep. In order to improve the efficiency of these investigations, it is imperative that efforts on the sheep comparative map be continued.