A genome-wide association study to detect QTL for commercially important traits in Swiss Large White boars

PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e55951. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055951. Epub 2013 Feb 5.

Abstract

The improvement of meat quality and production traits has high priority in the pork industry. Many of these traits show a low to moderate heritability and are difficult and expensive to measure. Their improvement by targeted breeding programs is challenging and requires knowledge of the genetic and molecular background. For this study we genotyped 192 artificial insemination boars of a commercial line derived from the Swiss Large White breed using the PorcineSNP60 BeadChip with 62,163 evenly spaced SNPs across the pig genome. We obtained 26 estimated breeding values (EBVs) for various traits including exterior, meat quality, reproduction, and production. The subsequent genome-wide association analysis allowed us to identify four QTL with suggestive significance for three of these traits (p-values ranging from 4.99×10⁻⁶ to 2.73×10⁻⁵). Single QTL for the EBVs pH one hour post mortem (pH1) and carcass length were on pig chromosome (SSC) 14 and SSC 2, respectively. Two QTL for the EBV rear view hind legs were on SSC 10 and SSC 16.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Genome-Wide Association Study / methods*
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics
  • Quantitative Trait Loci / genetics*
  • Swine

Grants and funding

This study was funded by a grant from the German Research Council (DFG LE 1032/23-1). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.