Genome-wide analysis for the melatonin trait associated genes and SNPs in dairy goat (Capra hircus) as the molecular breeding markers

Hao Wu; Qi Yi; Wenkui Ma; Laiqing Yan; Shengyu Guan; Likai Wang; Guang Yang; Xinxing Tan; Pengyun Ji; Guoshi Liu

doi:10.3389/fgene.2023.1118367

Genome-wide analysis for the melatonin trait associated genes and SNPs in dairy goat (Capra hircus) as the molecular breeding markers

Front Genet. 2023 Mar 20:14:1118367. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1118367. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hao Wu^{1

2

3}, Qi Yi², Wenkui Ma¹, Laiqing Yan¹, Shengyu Guan¹, Likai Wang¹, Guang Yang², Xinxing Tan⁴, Pengyun Ji¹, Guoshi Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics and Breeding of the Ministry of Agricultural, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
² Sanya Institute of China Agricultural University, Sanya, China.
³ Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya, China.
⁴ Inner Mongolia Grassland Hongbao Food Co., Ltd., Bayannaoer, China.

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that the endogenous melatonin level is positively associated with the quality and yield of milk of cows. In the current study, a total of 34,921 SNPs involving 1,177 genes were identified in dairy goats by using the whole genome resequencing bulked segregant analysis (BSA) analysis. These SNPs have been used to match the melatonin levels of the dairy goats. Among them, 3 SNPs has been identified to significantly correlate with melatonin levels. These 3 SNPs include CC genotype 147316, GG genotype 147379 and CC genotype 1389193 which all locate in the exon regions of ASMT and MT2 genes. Dairy goats with these SNPs have approximately 5-fold-higher melatonin levels in milk and serum than the average melatonin level detected in the current goat population. If the melatonin level impacts the milk production in goats as in cows, the results strongly suggest that these 3 SNPs can serve as the molecular markers to select the goats having the improved milk quality and yield. This is a goal of our future study.

Keywords: AANAT; ASMT; BSA analysis; SNP; dairy goat; melatonin.

Grants and funding

The financial support of the Key Project of Hainan Province (ZDYF2021XDNY174), the Major Science and Technology Project of Inner Mongolia (2021ZD0023-1). Beijing Livestock Innovation Team (BAIC05-2023), Biological Breeding Project-Topic 4 (2022ZD0401404).