Understanding the molecular bases controlling complex traits in livestock is essential for optimizing genetic selection methods and thus improving breeding.

Lactation is an essential process for mammals. In sheep, the R96C mutation in the SOCS2 (Suppressor Of Cytokine Signaling 2) protein is associated with higher milk production and increased susceptibility to mastitis. To understand the involvement of the R96C mutation in mammary gland development and lactation, we developed a mouse model carrying this mutation (SOCS2KI/KI).

Any animal or plant population, wild or domesticated, evolves through continuous and cumulative changes over time, based on various evolutionary forces, namely selection, genetic drift, mutation and migration, with relative effects that depend on population history and structure. The footprints left along the genome by these evolutionary processes may correspond to positive selection of favorable alleles, resulting in highly homozygous regions with low genetic diversity, or, on the contrary, to balancing selection phenomena enabling regions to be maintained in a heterozygous state and thus with high genetic diversity.