Intramuscular fat (IMF) is an important quantitative trait of meat, which affects the associated sensory properties and nutritional value of pork. To gain a better understanding of the genetic determinants of IMF, we used a composite strategy, including single-locus and multi-locus association analyses to perform genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for IMF in 1,490 Duroc boars. We estimated the genomic heritability of IMF to be 0.23 ± 0.04. A total of 30 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were found to be significantly associated with IMF. The single-locus mixed linear model (MLM) and multiple-locus methods multi-locus random-SNP-effect mixed linear model (mrMLM), fast multi-locus random-SNP-effect efficient mixed model association (FASTmrEMMA), and integrative sure independence screening expectation maximization Bayesian least absolute shrinkage and selection operator model (ISIS EM-BLASSO) analyses identified 5, 9, 8, and 21 significant SNPs, respectively. Interestingly, a novel quantitative trait locus (QTL) on SSC 7 was found to affect IMF. In addition, 10 candidate genes (BDKRB2, GTF2IRD1, UTRN, TMEM138, DPYD, CASQ2, ZNF518B, S1PR1, GPC6, and GLI1) were found to be associated with IMF based on their potential functional roles in IMF. GO analysis showed that most of the genes were involved in muscle and organ development. A significantly enriched KEGG pathway, the sphingolipid signaling pathway, was reported to be associated with fat deposition and obesity. Identification of novel variants and functional genes will advance our understanding of the genetic mechanisms of IMF and provide specific opportunities for marker-assisted or genomic selection in pigs. In general, such a composite single-locus and multi-locus strategy for GWAS may be useful for understanding the genetic architecture of economic traits in livestock.
Keywords: Duroc pigs; candidate gene; intramuscular fat; multi-locus genome-wide association studies; single-locus genome-wide association studies.