Van der Nest, Magrieta AlettaHlongwane, NompiloHadebe, KhanyisileChan, Wai YinVan der Merwe, Nicolaas Albertus (Albie)De Vos, LieschenGreyling, BenKooverjee, Bhaveni B.Soma, Pranisha OmduthDzomba, Edgar F.Bradfield, MichaelMuchadeyi, Farai C.2021-04-122021-04-122021-01Van der Nest MA, Hlongwane N, Hadebe K, Chan W-Y, van der Merwe NA, De Vos L, Greyling B, Kooverjee BB, Soma P, Dzomba EF, Bradfield M and Muchadeyi FC (2021) Breed Ancestry, Divergence, Admixture, and Selection Patterns of the Simbra Crossbreed. Frontiers in Genetics 11:608650. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.608650.1664-8021 (online)10.3389/fgene.2020.608650http://hdl.handle.net/2263/79380In this study, we evaluated an admixed South African Simbra crossbred population, as well as the Brahman (Indicine) and Simmental (Taurine) ancestor populations to understand their genetic architecture and detect genomic regions showing signatures of selection. Animals were genotyped using the Illumina BovineLD v2 BeadChip (7K). Genomic structure analysis confirmed that the South African Simbra cattle have an admixed genome, composed of 5/8 Taurine and 3/8 Indicine, ensuring that the Simbra genome maintains favorable traits from both breeds. Genomic regions that have been targeted by selection were detected using the linkage disequilibrium-based methods iHS and Rsb. These analyses identified 10 candidate regions that are potentially under strong positive selection, containing genes implicated in cattle health and production (e.g., TRIM63, KCNA10, NCAM1, SMIM5, MIER3, and SLC24A4). These adaptive alleles likely contribute to the biological and cellular functions determining phenotype in the Simbra hybrid cattle breed. Our data suggested that these alleles were introgressed from the breed’s original indicine and taurine ancestors. The Simbra breed thus possesses derived parental alleles that combine the superior traits of the founder Brahman and Simmental breeds. These regions and genes might represent good targets for ad-hoc physiological studies, selection of breeding material and eventually even gene editing, for improved traits in modern cattle breeds. This study represents an important step toward developing and improving strategies for selection and population breeding to ultimately contribute meaningfully to the beef production industry.en© 2021 van der Nest, Hlongwane, Hadebe, Chan, van der Merwe, De Vos, Greyling, Kooverjee, Soma, Dzomba, Bradfield and Muchadeyi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).SimbraCrossbreedingGenomic selectionIndicineTaurineArticle