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. 2019 Jan 29;9(1):922.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-37216-z.

Genome wide association study of body weight and feed efficiency traits in a commercial broiler chicken population, a re-visitation

Wossenie Mebratie  1   2 , Henry Reyer  3 , Klaus Wimmers  3 , Henk Bovenhuis  4 , Just Jensen  5
Affiliations

Genome wide association study of body weight and feed efficiency traits in a commercial broiler chicken population, a re-visitation

Wossenie Mebratie et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Genome wide association study was conducted using a mixed linear model (MLM) approach that accounted for family structure to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and candidate genes associated with body weight (BW) and feed efficiency (FE) traits in a broiler chicken population. The results of the MLM approach were compared with the results of a general linear model approach that does not take family structure in to account. In total, 11 quantitative trait loci (QTL) and 21 SNPs, were identified to be significantly associated with BW traits and 5 QTL and 5 SNPs were found associated with FE traits using MLM approach. Besides some overlaps between the results of the two GWAS approaches, there are considerable differences in the detected QTL. Even though the genomic inflation factor (λ) values indicate that there is no strong family structure in this population, using models that account for the existing family structure may reduce bias and increase accuracy of the estimated SNP effects in the association analysis. The SNPs and candidate genes identified in this study provide information on the genetic background of BW and FE traits in broiler chickens and might be used as prior information for genomic selection.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Manhattan plots of genome wide association results for body weight traits using mixed linear model analysis. Chromosomes 29, 30 and 36 represent linkage groups LGE22C19W28_E50C23, LGE64, and chromosome Z, respectively. Red and blue lines indicate genome wide and suggestive significance thresholds, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Quantile-quantile plots of body weight traits using mixed linear model approach.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Manhattan plots of genome wide association results for feed efficiency traits using mixed linear model analysis. Chromosomes 29, 30 and 36 represent linkage groups LGE22C19W28_E50C23, LGE64, and chromosome Z, respectively. Red and blue lines indicate genome wide and suggestive significance thresholds, respectively.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Quantile-quantile plots of feed efficiency traits using mixed linear  model approach.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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