U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 Genetics and Animal Breeding: Clay Center, NE
 close



    Research

                    Research Projects
                                    Publications
                                    Collaborations
                                    News
                People

                    Staff Listing
                                    Careers


        


                    USMARC Home
                    USMARC Research Units
                        Meat Safety & Quality
                                    Livestock Bio-Systems
                                    Nutrition, Growth and Physiology
                                    Animal Health GenomicsSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Plains Area Clay Center, Nebraska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center Genetics and Animal Breeding People





- Find a person
- Find a location
- ARS Organizational Chart
- People
- Contact Information
- ARS News Articles
- Research Projects
- Publications

Timothy P Smith

(Tim)    Research Chemist In the past 10 years research in my laboratory has focused on generation of genomic tools to enable analysis of genome function and facilitate detection of naturally occurring variation in livestock affecting a variety of functions with impact on food animal production.We played significant roles in development of genome maps of cattle, swine, and sheep, and in development of resources such as Bacterial and Yeast Artificial Chromosome libraries, Expressed Sequence Tag databases, and full-length protein- coding mRNA sequences.These resources were a key component leading to selection of cattle as a species for complete genome sequencing, which now has opened the door for much more detailed analysis of genome function and evolution among mammals.With the bovine draft genome sequence in hand, and development of databases of DNA sequence variation across the genome, we can now turn our attention to leveraging the investment in genome sequence to improve our understanding of the impact and interplay of the genome and the production environment.Current research in my laboratory has two principal goals, which are 1) identification of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers having predictive merit for production and meat quality traits in cattle, and 2) annotation of functional aspects of the bovine genome.Data from genetic studies of population of cattle have identified regions of the genome carrying variation among individuals that affects production characteristics.We have been developing DNA markers that accurately track inheritance of this variation, which we hope can be added to genetic improvement programs that would thus be better able to target specific traits for improvement.In addition, we have begun studies of an emerging class of regulatory molecules encoded by the genome called micro- RNAs, short and specific RNA sequences that appear to have the capacity to act as key regulators of growth, development, and tissue homeostasis.Focus for these studies is muscle development, growth, and repair, with some preliminary studies in other areas of potential interest including disease response and reproduction.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov