Gene-Set Enrichment Analysis for Identifying Genes and Biological Activities Associated with Growth Traits in Dromedaries
Morteza Bitaraf Sani,
Zahra Roudbari,
Omid Karimi,
Mohammad Hossein Banabazi,
Saeid Esmaeilkhanian,
Nader Asadzadeh,
Javad Zare Harofte,
Ali Shafei Naderi,
Pamela Anna Burger
Affiliations
Morteza Bitaraf Sani
Animal Science Research Department, Yazd Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education & Extension Organization (AREEO), Yazd 8915813155, Iran
Zahra Roudbari
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jiroft, Jiroft 7867155311, Iran
Omid Karimi
Department of Animal Viral Diseases Research, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Karaj 3146618361, Iran
Mohammad Hossein Banabazi
Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj 3146618361, Iran
Saeid Esmaeilkhanian
Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj 3146618361, Iran
Nader Asadzadeh
Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj 3146618361, Iran
Javad Zare Harofte
Animal Science Research Department, Yazd Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education & Extension Organization (AREEO), Yazd 8915813155, Iran
Ali Shafei Naderi
Animal Science Research Department, Yazd Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education & Extension Organization (AREEO), Yazd 8915813155, Iran
Pamela Anna Burger
Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, Vetmeduni Vienna, 1160 Vienna, Austria
Growth is an important heritable economic trait for dromedaries and necessary for planning a successful breeding program. Until now, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and QTL-mapping have identified significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with growth in domestic animals, but in dromedaries, the number of studies is very low. This project aimed to find biological themes affecting growth in dromedaries. In the first step, 99 candidate SNPs were chosen from a previously established set of SNPs associated with body weight, gain, and birth weight in Iranian dromedaries. Next, 0.5 kb upstream and downstream of each candidate SNP were selected from NCBI (assembly accession: GCA_000803125.3). The annotation of fragments with candidate SNPs regarding the reference genome was retrieved using the Blast2GO tool. Candidate SNPs associated with growth were mapped to 22 genes, and 25 significant biological themes were identified to be related to growth in dromedaries. The main biological functions included calcium ion binding, protein binding, DNA-binding transcription factor activity, protein kinase activity, tropomyosin binding, myosin complex, actin-binding, ATP binding, receptor signaling pathway via JAK-STAT, and cytokine activity. EFCAB5, MTIF2, MYO3A, TBX15, IFNL3, PREX1, and TMOD3 genes are candidates for improving growth in camel breeding programs.
