Title Conference

"Genetic diversity, adaptation, and priority strategies for animal genetic resources conservation"

The main activities of Professor of Livestock Genomics Juha Kantanen have focused on animal genetic and genomic research projects and the coordination of the animal genetic resources section of the Finnish National Genetic Resources Program for Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery. The main objectives of the research projects have been the examination of genetic diversity in domestic animal species, investigation of the evolutionary and demographic factors shaping this genetic diversity and characterization of animal genetic resources. The species included in the research projects have been cattle (Bos taurus and B. indicus), chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus), goat (Capra hircus), horse (Equus caballus), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and sheep (Ovis aries). Through international collaboration, data collected by several international research groups have been combined, and large globally unique datasets have been obtained for population genetics and population genomics analyses.