About the Authors

Daniela Iamartino

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

iamartino.d@aia.it

Affiliations AIA-LGS Associazione Italiana Allevatori–Laboratorio Genetica e Servizi, Cremona, Italy, Fondazione Parco Tecnologico Padano, Lodi, Italy

Ezequiel L. Nicolazzi

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft

Current address: Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding, 4201 Northview Dr. One Town Centre, Bowie, MD, United States of America

Affiliation Bioinformatics core, Parco Tecnologico Padano, Lodi, Italy

Curtis P. Van Tassell

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Software

Affiliation Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, BARC, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

James M. Reecy

Roles Data curation, Software, Supervision

Affiliation Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States of America

Eric R. Fritz-Waters

Roles Investigation, Software

Affiliation Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States of America

James E. Koltes

Roles Investigation, Software

Current address: Department of Animal Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, United States of America

Affiliation Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States of America

Stefano Biffani

Roles Formal analysis, Validation

Affiliation Fondazione Parco Tecnologico Padano, Lodi, Italy

Tad S. Sonstegard

Roles Methodology, Resources, Supervision

Current address: Recombinetics Inc., St. Paul, MN, United States of America

Affiliation Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, BARC, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Steven G. Schroeder

Roles Data curation, Methodology

Affiliation Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, BARC, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland, United States of America

Paolo Ajmone-Marsan

Roles Resources, Supervision, Validation

Affiliation Institute of Zootechnics, Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, Piacenza, Italy

Riccardo Negrini

Roles Resources

Affiliations AIA-LGS Associazione Italiana Allevatori–Laboratorio Genetica e Servizi, Cremona, Italy, Institute of Zootechnics, Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, Piacenza, Italy

Rolando Pasquariello

Roles Methodology

Affiliation Fondazione Parco Tecnologico Padano, Lodi, Italy

Paola Ramelli

Roles Methodology

Affiliation Fondazione Parco Tecnologico Padano, Lodi, Italy

Angelo Coletta

Roles Data curation, Resources

Affiliation ANASB-Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Specie Bufalina, Centurano—Caserta, Italy

José F. Garcia

Roles Resources

Affiliation Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Câmpus de Araçatuba, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Ahmad Ali

Roles Resources

Affiliation COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Sahiwal, Pakistan

Luigi Ramunno

Roles Resources

Affiliation Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche ed Ispezione degli Alimenti, Facoltà di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Portici (NA), Italy

Gianfranco Cosenza

Roles Resources

Affiliation Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche ed Ispezione degli Alimenti, Facoltà di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Portici (NA), Italy

Denise A. A. de Oliveira

Roles Resources

Affiliation Universidade Federal De Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Marcela G. Drummond

Roles Resources

Affiliation Universidade Federal De Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Eduardo Bastianetto

Roles Resources

Affiliation Universidade Federal De Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Alessandro Davassi

Roles Methodology, Software, Validation

Affiliation Affymetrix UK Ltd, High Wycombe, United Kingdom

Ali Pirani

Roles Resources, Software

Affiliation Affymetrix UK Ltd, High Wycombe, United Kingdom

Fiona Brew

Roles Resources

Affiliation Affymetrix UK Ltd, High Wycombe, United Kingdom

John L. Williams

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Davies Research Centre, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, SA, Australia

Competing Interests

One commercial organisation (Affymetrix UK Ltd) was involved in the development of the Water buffalo SNP array and preparation of the manuscript. Among the authors, FB, AP, AD work for Affymetrix Ltd. The Axiom Buffalo Genotyping array (Affymetrix PN 550431) was made available to the research community under the Affymetrix Expert Design Program. Information about the array can be accessed on affymetrix.com (http://www.affymetrix.com/estore/catalog/prod740001/AFFY/Axiom%26%23174%3B+Buffalo+Genotyping+Array#1_1). The Associazione Italiana Allevatori, Laboratorio Genetica e Servizi (AIA-LGS), Cremona, Italy—was involved in the development of this work supplying resources free of charge, and have not commercial interest in the project outputs. Author RN works for AIA-LGS. The author DI has become a member of AIA-LGS staff following the completion of experimental work for this publication. The Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Specie Bufalina (ANASB), Centurano -Caserta, Italy- provided phenotypic data free of charge for the Italian samples used in the GWAS, and has no commercial interest in the project results. Author AC works for ANASB. All other authors declare no conflict of interests. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.