PSVII-37 Late-Breaking Abstract: CNV analysis of indigenous sheep reveals genes linked to disease resistance and adaptation

Abstract

Abstract Smallholder farmers often make use of low-input systems, suggesting that robust and adaptable individuals are needed in these systems that have good production and reproduction in these low-input systems. One of the reasons certain individuals may be more adaptable or have higher production outputs could be due to the presence of advantageous mutations or genetic structural variants. Genetic variants, namely copy number variations (CNVs), are structural changes to the DNA and are larger than a single nucleotide. In this study, 47 sheep were investigated for the presence of CNVs. A total of 206 CNVs passed quality control. These CNVs were compared to the NCBI RefSeq Ovis aries: Oar_v4.0 to identify candidate genes located within or overlapping the copy number variations identified. Gene annotation analysis was carried out on the identified candidate genes. Gene annotation assigned the candidate genes to two gene groups. The first gene group were protein coding genes responsible for interferons that are the natural defences individuals have against viral and bacterial infection. The second gene group was found to be responsible for a variety of biological functions including transport, metabolic precursors, neurogenesis, signalling as well as bone and cartilage matrix composition along with a number of other important functions. This indicates that CNVs could have various effects on important biological process which could possibly influence an individual’s survival or even production and reproduction. This highlights the need for CNV studies to determine the influence of these CNVs and how they can be utilised in breeding programmes to improve adaptation and production outputs.