ABSTRACT
Lamb weight at 8 months of age is an important trait in the sheep industry in terms of the onset of puberty around this age; however, knowledge of its effective genetic factors is limited. Therefore, a GWAS using the 50K SNP-Chip was performed on 96 Baluchi sheep to identify the genomic regions associated with 8-month weight. The results of the present study revealed five SNPs on chromosomes 4, 14 and 16 at 5% chromosome-wide significance level, jointly accounting for 0.95% of total genetic variance. Four genes - MTPN, HYDIN, LRGUK and ZFP90 - were found in 50 kb intervals around the significant SNPs, of which MTPN is involved in regulation of skeletal muscle growth. Our results may provide a new vision to identify the genomic regions affecting growth traits in sheep.
Subject(s)
Body Weight/genetics , Genetic Association Studies/veterinary , Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide , Sheep, Domestic/genetics , Animals , Breeding , Female , Iran , Phenotype , Pregnancy , Red Meat , Sheep, Domestic/growth & developmentABSTRACT
The present study was undertaken to genetically evaluate Turkmen horses for genetic diversity and to evaluate whether they have experienced any recent genetic bottlenecks. A total of 565 individuals from Turkmen horses were characterized for within breed diversity using 12 microsatellite markers. The estimated mean allelic diversity was (9.42 ± 1.78) per locus, with a total of 131 alleles in genotyped samples. A high level of genetic variability within this breed was observed in terms of high values of effective number of alleles (4.70 ± 1.36), observed heterozygosity (0.757 ± 0.19), expected Nei's heterozygosity (0.765 ± 0.13), and polymorphism information content (0.776 ± 0.17). The estimated cumulative probability of exclusion of wrongly named parents (PE) was high, with an average value of 99.96% that indicates the effectiveness of applied markers in resolving of parentage typing in Turkmen horse population. The paternity testing results did not show any misidentification and all selected animals were qualified based on genotypic information using a likelihood-based method. Low values of Wright's fixation index, F(IS) (0.012) indicated low levels of inbreeding. A significant heterozygote excess on the basis of different models, as revealed from Sign and Wilcoxon sign rank test suggested that Turkmen horse population is not in mutation-drift equilibrium. But, the Mode-shift indicator test showed a normal 'L' shaped distribution for allelic class and proportion of alleles, thus indicating the absence of bottleneck events in the recent past history of this breed. Further research work should be carrying out to clarify the cause of discrepancy observed forbottleneck results in this breed. In conclusion, despite unplanned breeding in Turkmen horse population, this breed still has sufficient genetic variability and could provide a valuable source of genetic material that may use for meeting the demands of future breeding programs.
Subject(s)
Alleles , Genetic Variation , Horses/genetics , Microsatellite Repeats , Models, Genetic , Selective Breeding , Animals , Female , Iran , MaleSubject(s)
Bone Morphogenetic Protein 15/genetics , Bone Morphogenetic Protein Receptors, Type I/genetics , Chromosomes, Mammalian/genetics , Fertility/genetics , Growth Differentiation Factor 9/genetics , Animals , Buffaloes/genetics , Cattle/genetics , Chromosome Mapping , Goats/genetics , In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence , Sheep, Domestic/geneticsABSTRACT
A hypothesis was tested that providing the breeder hens with exogenous thyroxine (T(4)) would help their offspring to better survive the ascites-inducing condition during the growing period. In total, 132 broiler breeder hens were randomly assigned to one of 3 treatments: control (CON), hypothyroid [HYPO; 6-N-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU)-treated], and hyperthyroid (HYPER; T(4)-treated). The hens were artificially inseminated, and the hatching eggs (n = 1,320) were incubated. No eggs in the HYPO group hatched. The 1-d-old male chicks (n = 288) from other groups were reared for 42 d under standard or low ambient temperature to induce ascites. Blood samples were drawn from the hens, embryos, and broilers for determination of T(4) and triiodothyronine (T(3)). The hematocrit was also determined in broilers. The PTU-treated hens had an increased BW along with lower plasma T(3) and T(4) concentrations. Plasma T(4) was higher in the HYPER hens compared with CON hens, but T(3) concentration was not different between these groups. The fertility rate was not affected by either hypo- or hyperthyroidism. The embryos in the HYPO group had lower plasma T(3) and T(4) concentrations at d 18 of embryonic development and internal pipping. Higher plasma T(4) was recorded in the HYPER birds at internal pipping, although plasma T(3) concentration was not affected at this stage. Maternal hyperthyroidism decreased the overall incidence of ascites in the cold-exposed chickens (10.0 vs. 33.4% for HYPER and CON groups, respectively). Although the effect of maternal PTU or T(4) treatment on plasma thyroid hormones and on the right ventricle-to-total ventricular weight ratio in the broilers was not significant, the cold-exposed healthy CON chicks showed higher hematocrit values, compared with the HYPER birds. It was concluded that maternal hyperthyroidism could decrease the incidence of cold-induced ascites in broiler chickens; however, probable causal mechanisms remain to be elucidated.
