GENETIC AND EPIGENETIC FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS PHENOTYPIC VARIATION IN COMPLEX TRAITS.EPIGENETIC MODIFICATIONS CAN AFFECT TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION AND HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO INFLUENCE VARIATION IN ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT PHENOTYPES IN AGRICULTURAL SPECIES. METHYLATION CAN BE STUDIED IN THE CONTEXT OF EITHER DNA METHYLATION OR RNA METHYLATION. WHILE DNA METHYLATION REGULATES GENE TRANSCRIPTION, RNA METHYLATION AFFECTS TRANSLATIONAL FIDELITY. THE PROPOSED PROJECT IS DESIGNED TO ELUCIDATE THE EFFECT OF DNA AND RNA METHYLATION ON GENE EXPRESSION AND INVESTIGATE THE POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTION OF EPITRANSCRIPTOMICS TOWARDS FUNCTIONAL ANNOTATION OF GENOMES. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS GOAL, WE SHALL UTILIZE A COMPARATIVE GENOMICS TECHNIQUE INVOLVING SAMPLES FROM BOTH CATTLE AND SHEEP WHICH WILL UNDERGO DNA WHOLE GENOME BISULFITE SEQUENCING, RNA WHOLE GENOME BISULFITE SEQUENCING AND RNA-SEQ. SUBSEQUENTLY, WE WILL INTERROGATE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN RNA AND DNA METHYLATION BETWEEN CATTLE AND SHEEP. OUR LONG-TERM GOAL IS TO ELUCIDATE THE ROLE OF METHYLATION APPLIED TO PHENOTYPIC VARIATION AND TO PROVIDE A FOUNDATION UPON WHICH FUTURE PROJECTS CAN UTILIZE RNA-WGBS TO DETERMINE THE EXTENT TO WHICH RNA METHYLATION AFFECTS PHENOTYPIC VARIATION IN COMPLEX TRAITS.