Genome-Wide Association Study of Egg-Laying Traits and Egg Quality in LingKun Chickens

Jinfeng Gao; Wenwu Xu; Tao Zeng; Yong Tian; Chunqin Wu; Suzhen Liu; Yan Zhao; Shuhe Zhou; Xinqin Lin; Hongguo Cao; Lizhi Lu

doi:10.3389/fvets.2022.877739

Genome-Wide Association Study of Egg-Laying Traits and Egg Quality in LingKun Chickens

Front Vet Sci. 2022 Jun 20:9:877739. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.877739. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jinfeng Gao^{1

2}, Wenwu Xu¹, Tao Zeng¹, Yong Tian¹, Chunqin Wu³, Suzhen Liu³, Yan Zhao³, Shuhe Zhou⁴, Xinqin Lin⁴, Hongguo Cao², Lizhi Lu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-Products, Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Science, Hangzhou, China.
² College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China.
³ Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology, Wenzhou, China.
⁴ Wenzhou Golden Land Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., Wenzhou, China.

Abstract

Egg production is the most important trait of laying hens. To identify molecular markers and candidate genes associated with egg production and quality, such as body weight at first oviposition (BWF), the number of eggs produced in 500 days (EN500), egg weight (EW), egg shell thickness (EST), egg shell strength (ESS), and Haugh unit (HU), a genome-wide analysis was performed in 266 LingKun Chickens. The results showed that thirty-seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were associated with all traits (p < 9.47 × 10^-8, Bonferroni correction). These SNPs were located in close proximity to or within the sequence of the thirteen candidate genes, such as Galanin And GMAP Prepropeptide (GAL), Centromere Protein (CENPF), Glypican 2 (GPC2), Phosphatidylethanolamine N-Methyltransferase (PEMT), Transcription Factor AP-2 Delta (TFAP2D), and Carboxypeptidase Q (CPQ) gene related to egg-laying and Solute Carrier Family 5 Member 7 (SLC5A7), Neurocalcin Delta (NCALD), Proteasome 20S Subunit Beta 2 (PSMB2), Slit Guidance Ligand 3 (SLIT3), and Tubulin Tyrosine Ligase Like 7 (TTLL7) genes related to egg quality. Interestingly, one of the genes involved in bone formation (SLIT3) was identified as a candidate gene for ESS. Our candidate genes and SNPs associated with egg-laying traits were significant for molecular breeding of egg-laying traits and egg quality in LingKun chickens.

Keywords: GWAS; candidate gene; chicken; egg quality; egg-laying.