Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Animal science and Food Technology, Agricultural Science and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran.
2
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Animal science and Food Technology, Agricultural Science and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran
3
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arak University, Arak, Iran
4
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
Abstract
This study aimed to identify genomic regions, candidate genes, and biological pathways associated with fat deposition in some Asian and African sheep breeds based on selection signatures method and gene set enrichment analysis. A total of 49,034 SNP markers data obtained from 404 animal samples, including 13 fat-tailed and 7 thin-tailed sheep breeds with relatively similar tail and fat-tail dimensions distributed across different regions of Asia and Africa, were used. Principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized for assessing the clustering of animals into their true population, and FST (Theta) statistics was employed for detecting of positive selection signatures. Subsequently, genes reported in the selected regions were identified, and gene set enrichment analysis was performed to identify biological pathways (and candidate genes) associated with fat deposition. PCA analysis showed that all animals clustered into their respective breed groups, and thin and fat tailed sheep breeds could be separated based on different components. In this study, 19 genomic regions were identified to be under selection between thin and fat tailed sheep breeds. Investigation of reported genes in these regions led to the identification of several biological pathways (and candidate genes) directly or indirectly associated with tail morphology (NDUFB, ANO4, ASXL2, ABHD2, and NID2), fat-tail size (ACADL), skeletal or body size (PDGFD, ACAN, HOXC, HOXB, BMP2, and BMP4), immune response (ATG5, IL4, IL5, and IL13), and melanocyte regulation (KITLG).
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