Genomic Regions Associated with Wool, Growth and Reproduction Traits in Uruguayan Merino Sheep

Zully Ramos; Dorian J Garrick; Hugh T Blair; Brenda Vera; Gabriel Ciappesoni; Paul R Kenyon

doi:10.3390/genes14010167

Genomic Regions Associated with Wool, Growth and Reproduction Traits in Uruguayan Merino Sheep

Genes (Basel). 2023 Jan 7;14(1):167. doi: 10.3390/genes14010167.

Authors

Zully Ramos¹, Dorian J Garrick¹, Hugh T Blair¹, Brenda Vera², Gabriel Ciappesoni², Paul R Kenyon¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand.
² National Research Program on Meat and Wool Production, Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria, INIA Las Brujas, Ruta 48 Km 10, Canelones 90100, Uruguay.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify genomic regions and genes associated with the fiber diameter (FD), clean fleece weight (CFW), live weight (LW), body condition score (BCS), pregnancy rate (PR) and lambing potential (LP) of Uruguayan Merino sheep. Phenotypic records of approximately 2000 mixed-age ewes were obtained from a Merino nucleus flock. Genome-wide association studies were performed utilizing single-step Bayesian analysis. For wool traits, a total of 35 genomic windows surpassed the significance threshold (PVE ≥ 0.25%). The proportion of the total additive genetic variance explained by those windows was 4.85 and 9.06% for FD and CFW, respectively. There were 42 windows significantly associated with LWM, which collectively explained 43.2% of the additive genetic variance. For BCS, 22 relevant windows accounted for more than 40% of the additive genetic variance, whereas for the reproduction traits, 53 genomic windows (24 and 29 for PR and LP, respectively) reached the suggestive threshold of 0.25% of the PVE. Within the top 10 windows for each trait, we identified several genes showing potential associations with the wool (e.g., IGF-1, TGFB2R, PRKCA), live weight (e.g., CAST, LAP3, MED28, HERC6), body condition score (e.g., CDH10, TMC2, SIRPA, CPXM1) or reproduction traits (e.g., ADCY1, LEPR, GHR, LPAR2) of the mixed-age ewes.

Keywords: GWAS; body condition score; fiber diameter; gene; reproduction; sheep.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Animals
Bayes Theorem
Female
Genome-Wide Association Study*
Genomics
Pregnancy
Reproduction / genetics
Sheep / genetics
Sheep, Domestic / genetics
Wool*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Regional Consortium for Innovation in Ultrafine Wool (CRILU), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the grant agreement n°772787 (Smarter) and the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Uruguay (INIA_CL_38: Rumiar). This study was supported by two Ph.D. scholarships (from the National Agency for Investigation and Innovation of Uruguay, ANII, and Massey University, New Zealand), awarded to Zully Ramos.