ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2018, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (7): 1354-1365.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2018.07.004

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Identification of Candidate Genes Involved in Fat Deposition in Hulun Buir Sheep Tails Using FST within the Variable Window Sizes

ZHANG Tong-yu, FAN Hong-ying, ZHU Cai-ye, LIU Jia-xin, DENG Tian-yu, DU Li-xin, WANG Li-xian*, ZHAO Fu-ping*   

  1. Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2017-12-15 Online:2018-07-23 Published:2018-07-19

Abstract:

The aims of this study were to reveal the genetic mechanism of fat deposition in the tail of sheep, and to explore the candidate genes involved in sheep tail fat. A total of 288 individuals from two lines of Hulun Buir sheep with different tail types were used to identify candidate genes controlling different tail types of sheep. These individuals included 142 fat-tailed and 146 thin-tailed sheep. The whole-genome single locus FST values were calculated based on the Illumina Ovine 600K SNP genotype data. The cubic smoothing spline method was used to define the numbers and sizes of variable windows. A total of 23 144 variable windows were identified within the whole genome. The largest window with 775 SNPs was located at chr12:35 241 750-43 798 950 bp, with a size of 8.56 Mb. The W statistic was constructed to detect the windows with selection signature. Twenty-seven of variable windows reached extremely significant level(P<0.001). After annotation, these windows harbored 337 candidate genes, of which 22 were related to the fat metabolism. Through GO analysis, these candidate genes were mainly enriched in the intracellular components, organonitrogen compound metabolic process and small molecule metabolic process. The FST method with variable windows was used to effectively identify candidate genes associated with fat deposition in the tail of sheep. These genes can be used to breed a new sheep breed with small size. The results will provide an important reference for breeding short-tailed sheep.

Key words: FST, variable window, Hulun Buir sheep, tail type, fat deposition

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