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. 2021 Dec 3;17(1):369.
doi: 10.1186/s12917-021-03077-4.

Signature selection analysis reveals candidate genes associated with production traits in Iranian sheep breeds

Leila Mohamadipoor Saadatabadi  1 , Mohammadreza Mohammadabadi  2 , Zeinab Amiri Ghanatsaman  3 , Olena Babenko  4 , Ruslana Stavetska  4 , Oleksandr Kalashnik  5 , Dmytro Kucher  6 , Oleksandr Kochuk-Yashchenko  6 , Hojjat Asadollahpour Nanaei  7
Affiliations

Signature selection analysis reveals candidate genes associated with production traits in Iranian sheep breeds

Leila Mohamadipoor Saadatabadi et al. BMC Vet Res. .

Abstract

Background: Sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated. They are raised all over the world and produce a major scale of animal-based protein for human consumption and play an important role in agricultural economy. Iran is one of the important locations for sheep genetic resources in the world. Here, we compared the Illumina Ovine SNP50 BeadChip data of three Iranian local breeds (Moghani, Afshari and Gezel), as a population that does not undergone artificial breeding programs as yet, and five other sheep breeds namely East Friesian white, East Friesian brown, Lacaune, DorsetHorn and Texel to detect genetic mechanisms underlying economical traits and daptation to harsh environments in sheep.

Results: To identify genomic regions that have been targeted by positive selection, we used fixation index (Fst) and nucleotide diversity (Pi) statistics. Further analysis indicated candidate genes involved in different important traits such as; wool production included crimp of wool (PTPN3, NBEA and KRTAP20-2 genes), fiber diameter (PIK3R4 gene), hair follicle development (LHX2 gene), the growth and development of fiber (COL17A1 gene)), adaptation to hot arid environments (CORIN gene), adaptive in deficit water status (CPQ gene), heat stress (PLCB4, FAM107B, NBEA, PIK3C2B and USP43 genes) in sheep.

Conclusions: We detected several candidate genes related to wool production traits and adaptation to hot arid environments in sheep that can be applicable for inbreeding goals. Our findings not only include the results of previous researches, but also identify a number of novel candidate genes related to studied traits. However, more works will be essential to acknowledge phenotype- genotype relationships of the identified genes in our study.

Keywords: Candidate genes; Middle east; Positive selection; ovis aries.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Neighbour-joining (NJ) tree (a) and Output of Admixture (b) for k values of 1–6, the best k value is 2
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
LD decay (A). Average number of ROHs longer than 1000 Kb for each population (B)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Manhattan plot of genome-wide Fst values. A Indigenous group versus meat group. B Indigenous group versus milk group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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