The use of frozen-thawed semen is an important reproduction tool to preserve the biodiversity of small, native horse breeds such as the Franches-Montagnes (FM). However, not all stallions produce cryotolerant semen with a progressive motility after thaw ≥ 35%. To improve our understanding of the genetic background of male fertility traits in both fresh and frozen-thawed semen, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on gel-free volume, sperm cell concentration, total sperm count, and progressive motility in fresh and frozen-thawed semen from 109 FM stallions using 335,494 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We identified one significant (p < 1.69 × 10-7) quantitative trait locus (QTL) on ECA6 within the SCN8A gene for progressive motility after thaw, which was previously associated with progressive motility in boars. Homozygous stallions showed a substantial drop in progressive motility after thaw. This QTL could be used to identify cryointolerant stallions, avoiding the costly cryopreservation process. Further studies are needed to confirm whether this QTL is also present in other horse breeds.
Keywords: fertility; genome-wide heritability; semen quality; single nucleotide polymorphism; stallion.