Genome-wide association study for wool production traits in a Chinese Merino sheep population

Zhipeng Wang; Hui Zhang; Hua Yang; Shouzhi Wang; Enguang Rong; Wenyu Pei; Hui Li; Ning Wang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0107101

Genome-wide association study for wool production traits in a Chinese Merino sheep population

PLoS One. 2014 Sep 30;9(9):e107101. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107101. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Zhipeng Wang¹, Hui Zhang¹, Hua Yang², Shouzhi Wang¹, Enguang Rong¹, Wenyu Pei¹, Hui Li¹, Ning Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Education Department of Heilongjiang province, Harbin, P. R. China; College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, P. R. China.
² Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Science, Shihezi, P.R. China.

Abstract

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide a powerful approach for identifying quantitative trait loci without prior knowledge of location or function. To identify loci associated with wool production traits, we performed a genome-wide association study on a total of 765 Chinese Merino sheep (JunKen type) genotyped with 50 K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In the present study, five wool production traits were examined: fiber diameter, fiber diameter coefficient of variation, fineness dispersion, staple length and crimp. We detected 28 genome-wide significant SNPs for fiber diameter, fiber diameter coefficient of variation, fineness dispersion, and crimp trait in the Chinese Merino sheep. About 43% of the significant SNP markers were located within known or predicted genes, including YWHAZ, KRTCAP3, TSPEAR, PIK3R4, KIF16B, PTPN3, GPRC5A, DDX47, TCF9, TPTE2, EPHA5 and NBEA genes. Our results not only confirm the results of previous reports, but also provide a suite of novel SNP markers and candidate genes associated with wool traits. Our findings will be useful for exploring the genetic control of wool traits in sheep.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Genome-Wide Association Study
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
Sheep, Domestic / anatomy & histology
Sheep, Domestic / genetics*
Sheep, Domestic / growth & development
Wool / anatomy & histology
Wool / growth & development*

Grants and funding

The authors appreciate the financial support provided by the Domain-Specific projects for transgenic biological breeding (2014ZX08009-002 and 2009ZX08009-160B), and Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31101709). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.