Copy number variation of the ZNF679 gene in cattle and its association analysis with growth traits

Abstract

Copy number variation (CNV) is an important member of genetic structural variation that exists widely in animal genomes and is between 50 bp and several Mb in length and widely used in research’s of animal genetics and breeding. ZNF679 is an important transcription factor, which has been found association with diseases in the human genome many times. This gene has also been found to be associated with cattle growth traits in previous re-sequencing studies. We tested the CNVs of the ZNF679 gene in 809 individuals from 7 Chinese cattle breeds and tested the association between the CNVs and growth traits in 552 individuals from 5 breeds. The results demonstrated the correlation the correlation between the CNVs of the ZNF679 gene and some Chinese cattle (QC cattle and XN cattle) growth traits. To sum up, this study indicated that ZNF679-CNVs can be used as a candidate gene for molecular genetic marker-assisted selection breeding for cattle growth traits to contribute to the development of genetic improvement of Chinese cattle.