Abstract
Objective: Body weight is an important economic trait for a goat, which greatly affects animal growth and survival. The purpose of this study was to identify genes associated with birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), and yearling weight (YW).Materials and Methods: In this study, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of BW, WW, and YW was determined using the GGP_Goat_70K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip in 1,920 Inner Mongolia cashmere goats.Results: We discovered that 21 SNPs were significantly associated with BW on the genome-wide levels. These SNPs were located in 10 genes, e.g., Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3 (MAPK3), LIM domain binding 2 (LDB2), and low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1B (LRP1B), which may be related to muscle growth and development in Inner Mongolia Cashmere goats. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis revealed that these genes were significantly enriched in the regulation of actin cytoskeleton and phospholipase D signaling pathway etc.Conclusion: In summary, this study will improve the marker-assisted breeding of Inner Mongolia cashmere goats and the molecular mechanisms of important economic traits.
Highlights
Body weight is one of the most important economic traits for livestock that can be measured during the entire animal lifetime from birth to slaughter
The results indicate that substantial phenotypic variation of these three traits exists in the population of Inner Mongolia cashmere goats
The first GWAS of Inner Mongolia cashmere goats was performed to identify gene-associated to three body traits
Summary
Body weight is one of the most important economic traits for livestock that can be measured during the entire animal lifetime from birth to slaughter. The early growth rate of a goat has a strong implication on both reproductive and production performances. Growth performance traits, such as birth weight (BW) and weaning weight (WW), are the basis for selection in genetic improvement programs for meat production [1]. To investigate the relationships between body weight and meat quality traits, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism and PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism were applied to suggest a low negative relationship between BW, meat quality, and genetic markers (IGF-II and CAPN1) in chickens breeding for meat quality [2]. To a GWAS of Body Weight Traits large extent, it hinders the rapid industry development of animal production
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