Abstract
BackgroundModern breeding in the poultry industry mainly aims to produce high-performance poultry lines and breeds in two main directions of productivity, meat and eggs. To understand more about the productive potential of lowly selected Chinese native chicken populations, we selected 14 representative SNP markers strongly associated with growth traits or carcass traits and 14 SNP markers strongly associated with egg laying traits through previous reports. By using the MassArray technology, we detected the genotype frequency distributions of these 28 SNP markers in seven populations including four lowly selected as well as one moderately selected Sichuan native chicken populations, one commercial broiler line and one commercial layer line.ResultsBased on the genotype frequency distributions of these 28 SNP markers in 5 native chicken populations and 2 commercial lines, the results suggested that these Chinese indigenous chicken populations have a relatively close relationship with the commercial broiler line but a marked distinction from the commercial layer line. Two native chicken breeds, Shimian Caoke Chicken and Daheng Broilers, share similar genetic structure with the broiler line.ConclusionsOur observations may help us to better select and breed superior domestic chickens and provide new clues for further study of breeding programs in local chicken populations.
Highlights
Modern breeding in the poultry industry mainly aims to produce high-performance poultry lines and breeds in two main directions of productivity, meat and eggs
Genotype frequencies of the 28 Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers in the seven populations Comparisons of genotype frequency distributions of the 28 SNPs markers in the seven chicken populations are shown in Fig. 1 and Mass spectrometry for 28 SNP markers are in Additional file 1: Figure S1 and Additional file 2: Figure S2
The frequencies of the genotypes at most of the SNP markers associated with egg production traits exhibit extremely significant difference (P < 0.01) between Lohman Laying Hen (LLH) and the other six chicken populations
Summary
Modern breeding in the poultry industry mainly aims to produce high-performance poultry lines and breeds in two main directions of productivity, meat and eggs. Defining the molecular genetic basis of these economically important traits is a major task in chicken breeding research [2]. Chinese indigenous chickens possess a series of desirable meat qualities including greater tenderness and preferred flavors that are often favored by consumers [10, 11]. They are relatively disease-resistant and well-adapted to the harsh environments [12, 13]. Faster genetic improvement for higher growth or carcass traits and egg laying performances in Chinese native chicken breeds is
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