A genome-wide association study in large white and landrace pig populations for number piglets born alive.

Sarah Bergfelder-Drüing,Henner Simianer,Bianca Lind,Ernst Tholen,Christine Grosse-Brinkhaus,Malena Erbe,Karl Schellander,Lin Chen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117468

Sarah Bergfelder-Drüing, Henner Simianer + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117468

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Mar 17, 2015
Citations: 41	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Bonn, University of Göttingen

Abstract

The number of piglets born alive (NBA) per litter is one of the most important traits in pig breeding due to its influence on production efficiency. It is difficult to improve NBA because the heritability of the trait is low and it is governed by a high number of loci with low to moderate effects. To clarify the biological and genetic background of NBA, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed using 4,012 Large White and Landrace pigs from herdbook and commercial breeding companies in Germany (3), Austria (1) and Switzerland (1). The animals were genotyped with the Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip. Because of population stratifications within and between breeds, clusters were formed using the genetic distances between the populations. Five clusters for each breed were formed and analysed by GWAS approaches. In total, 17 different significant markers affecting NBA were found in regions with known effects on female reproduction. No overlapping significant chromosome areas or QTL between Large White and Landrace breed were detected.

Highlights

Reproduction traits of livestock are important because of the major role they play in the economic success of production [1]
Performed visual inspections of the breed specific multidimensional scaling (MDS) plots of Large White (LW) and LR populations led to various cluster definitions (Figs. 3, 4)
The results reported by Tribout et al [64] and our own findings indicate that this chromosome region may have an impact on number of piglets born alive (NBA) in Large White populations

Summary

Introduction

Reproduction traits of livestock are important because of the major role they play in the economic success of production [1]. Selection based on traditional breeding programmes using Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) has been successful in improving maternal reproductive traits such as NBA. Genetic improvement of female reproduction traits is difficult and complex because of low heritability and sex limited expression and because phenotyping is only possible late in a sow’s life. These conditions constitute a challenge for traditional animal breeding programmes. The exploration of the genetic architecture of reproduction traits is necessary because of the complex genetic and biological processes involved [1,2]

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