Abstract
Chest circumference (CC), abdominal circumference (AC), and waist circumference (WC) are regarded as important indicators for improving economic traits because they can reflect the growth and physiological status in pigs. However, the genetic architecture of CC, AC, and WC is still elusive. Here, we performed single-trait and multi-trait genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for CC, AC, and WC in 2,206 American origin Duroc (AOD) and 2,082 Canadian origin Duroc (COD) pigs. As a result, one novel quantitative trait locus (QTL) on Sus scrofa chromosome (SSC) one was associated with CC and AC in COD pigs, which spans 6.92 Mb (from 170.06 to 176.98 Mb). Moreover, multi-trait GWAS identified 21 significant SNPs associated with the three conformation traits, indicating the multi-trait GWAS is a powerful statistical approach that uncovers pleiotropic locus. Finally, the three candidate genes (ITGA11, TLE3, and GALC) were selected that may play a role in the conformation traits. Further bioinformatics analysis indicated that the candidate genes for the three conformation traits mainly participated in sphingolipid metabolism and lysosome pathways. For all we know, this study was the first GWAS for WC in pigs. In general, our findings further reveal the genetic architecture of CC, AC, and WC, which may offer a useful reference for improving the conformation traits in pigs.
Highlights
Due to conformation traits closely related to many economic traits in livestock, these traits are considered as an important breeding selection criteria
Our previous study showed that compared to the Canadian origin Duroc (COD) population, the coefficient of variation for the lean meat percentage (LMP) and average daily gain (ADG) was smaller in the American origin Duroc (AOD) population [25]
We considered that the uniformities of these three conformation traits in AOD pigs were higher, which might be because AOD pigs have a higher selection intensity for production traits than COD pigs
Summary
Due to conformation traits closely related to many economic traits in livestock, these traits are considered as an important breeding selection criteria. Ohnishi and Satoh [1] reported a positive genetic correlation between chest circumference (CC) and backfat thickness (0.6) in Duroc pigs. CC was closely associated (r > 0.7) with body weight in pigs [2]. Vargas et al [3] found a linear relationship between live weight and CC and abdominal circumference. There were almost no waist circumference (WC) studies in livestock, the WC was reported to predict non-abdominal, abdominal subcutaneous, and visceral fat in humans [4]. Understanding the genetic architecture of CC, AC, and WC will help improve the economic traits related to these conformation traits in livestock
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