Abstract
In the poultry industry, aggressive behaviour is a large animal welfare issue all over the world. To date, little is known about the underlying genetics of the aggressive behaviour. Here, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to explore the genetic mechanism associated with aggressive behaviour in chickens. The GWAS results showed that a total of 33 SNPs were associated with aggressive behaviour traits (P < 4.6E-6). rs312463697 on chromosome 4 was significantly associated with aggression (P = 2.10905E-07), and it was in the intron region of the sortilin-related VPS10 domain containing receptor 2 (SORCS2) gene. In addition, biological function analysis of the nearest 26 genes around the significant SNPs was performed with Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. An interaction network contained 17 genes was obtained and SORCS2 was involved in this network, interacted with nerve growth factor (NGF), nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR), dopa decarboxylase (L-dopa) and dopamine. After knockdown of SORCS2, the mRNA levels of NGF, L-dopa and dopamine receptor genes DRD1, DRD2, DRD3 and DRD4 were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). In summary, our data indicated that SORCS2 might play an important role in chicken aggressive behaviour through the regulation of dopaminergic pathways and NGF.
Highlights
Number of fighting times in days with frequencies not less than 4 times per day Number of days for chicken showed fighting
We measured SORCS2 mRNA levels using RT-qPCR method, results showed that the highest aggressive chickens have significantly higher expression level of SORCS2 in the pituitary tissue than the lowest aggressive chickens (P = 0.029)
After performing Genome-wide association analysis (GWAS), we found that one SNP located at rs312463697 in the intron region of the SORCS2 gene on chromosome 4, significantly (P = 2.1091E-07) associated with aggressive behaviour traits in males
Summary
Number of fighting times in days with frequencies not less than 4 times per day Number of days for chicken showed fighting. Fighting days mechanisms that associated with aggressive behaviour in chickens and we hope that our study can provides a new insight into understanding aggression in chickens. ® ® In the present study, with the use of a 600 K Affymetrix Axiom High density (HD) chicken genotyping array, we performed GWAS to identify candidate genes or genomic regions that associated with chicken aggressive behaviour. One SNP rs312463697 was found to be reached 5% Bonferroni genome-wide significantly associated (P = 2.10905E-07) with male aggression and it is located in the intron region of the SORCS2 gene on chromosome 4. Our data indicated that variations of SORCS2 gene might contribute to the susceptibility of chicken aggressive behaviour and these can provide a new insight into genetics of aggressive behaviour in chickens
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