Frontiers in Genetics (Jul 2020)

The Genetic Architecture of the Chickens Dropping Moisture by Genetic Parameter Estimation and Genome-Wide Association

  • Tao Zhu,
  • Tong-Yu Zhang,
  • Junhui Wen,
  • Xiaoyu Zhao,
  • Yu Chen,
  • Yaxiong Jia,
  • Liang Wang,
  • Xueze Lv,
  • Weifang Yang,
  • Zi Guan,
  • Zhonghua Ning,
  • Lujiang Qu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.00806
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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Dropping moisture (DM) refers to the water content of feces. High DM in chickens could be disadvantageous to pathogen control and fecal treatment in chicken farms. DM can be affected by environment, nutrition, disease, and genetics. In the present study, significant individual differences were presented in the DM of Rhode Island Red (RIR) chicken population, indicating that genetics could contribute to DM in the chickens. Subsequently, we estimated the genetic parameters of DM and conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to find the potential genomic regions related to DM. The results showed that the heritability of DM ranged from 0.25 to 0.32. Furthermore, 11 significant loci on chromosome 7 were found to be associated with DM levels by the GWAS. The SNP rs15833816 within the COL6A3 gene was the most significant SNP related to DM. Hens carrying the G allele including GA and GG produced higher DM (P < 0.01) levels than those carrying the other genotype AA. Our results showed that DM is a medium-inheritable trait and that COL6A3 could be a potential candidate gene that regulates DM level in chickens.

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