Unravelling the genetic loci for growth and carcass traits in Chinese Bamaxiang pigs based on a 1.4 million SNP array

In this study, we performed genomewide association studies (GWAS) on 43 growth and carcass traits in 315 purebred Bamaxiang pigs based on a 1.4 million SNP array. We observed considerable phenotypic variability in the growth and carcass traits in the Bamaxiang pigs. The corresponding SNP based heritability varied greatly across the 43 traits and ranged from 9.0% to 88%. Through a conditional GWAS, we identified 53 significant associations for 35 traits atp value threshold of 10−6. Among which, 26 associations on chromosome 3, 7, 14 and X passed a genomewide significance threshold of 5  × 10−8. The most remarkable loci were at around 30.6  Mb on chromosome 7, which had growth stage‐dependent effects on body lengths and cannon circumferences and showed large effects on multiple carcass traits. We discussedHMGA1 NUDT3, EIF2AK1, TMEM132C andAFF2 that near the lead SNP of significant loci as plausible candidate genes for corresponding traits. We also showed that including phenotypic covariate in GWAS can help to reveal additional significant loci for the target traits. The results provide insight into the genetic architecture of growth and carcass traits in Bamaxiang pigs.

Source: Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics - November 12, 2018 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Huanfa Gong, Shijun Xiao, Wanbo Li, Tao Huang, Xiaochang Huang, Guorong Yan, Yizhong Huang, Hengqing Qiu, Kai Jiang, Xiaopeng Wang, Hui Zhang, Jianhong Tang, Lin Li, Yiping Li, Chenbin Wang, Chuanmin Qiao, Jun Ren, Lusheng Huang, Bin Yan Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research