Relationship between Indel Variants within the <i>JAK2</i> Gene and Growth Traits in Goats

Abstract

Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) plays a critical role in myoblast proliferation and fat deposition in animals. Our previous RNA-Seq analyses identified a close association between the JAK2 gene and muscle development. To date, research delving into the relationship between the JAK2 gene and growth traits has been sparse. In this study, we sought to investigate the relationship between novel mutations within the JAK2 gene and goat growth traits. Herein, two novel InDel (Insertion/Deletion) polymorphisms within the JAK2 gene were detected in 548 goats, and only two genotypes were designated as ID (Insertion/Deletion) and DD (Deletion/Deletion). The results indicate that the two InDels, the del19008 locus in intron 2 and del72416 InDel in intron 6, showed significant associations with growth traits (p JAK2 gene could serve as valuable molecular markers for enhancing goat growth traits in breeding programs.

Keywords

• goat
• <i>JAK2</i> gene
• insertion/deletion
• growth traits
• marker-assisted selection (MAS)