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. 2023 Jul;9(4):1781-1790.
doi: 10.1002/vms3.1151. Epub 2023 May 4.

A genome-wide association study of morphometric traits in dromedaries

Morteza Bitaraf Sani  1 , Omid Karimi  2 , Pamela Anna Burger  3 , Arash Javanmard  4 , Zahra Roudbari  5 , Mokhtar Mohajer  6 , Nader Asadzadeh  6 , Javad Zareh Harofteh  1 , Ali Kazemi  7 , Ali Shafei Naderi  1
Affiliations

A genome-wide association study of morphometric traits in dromedaries

Morteza Bitaraf Sani et al. Vet Med Sci. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Investigating genomic regions associated with morphometric traits in camels is valuable, because it allows a better understanding of adaptive and productive features to implement a sustainable management and a customised breeding program for dromedaries.

Objectives: With a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 96 Iranian dromedaries phenotyped for 12 morphometric traits and genotyped-by-sequencing (GBS) with 14,522 SNPs, we aimed at identifying associated candidate genes.

Methods: The association between SNPs and morphometric traits was investigated using a linear mixed model with principal component analysis (PCA) and kinship matrix.

Results: With this approach, we detected 59 SNPs located in 37 candidate genes potentially associated to morphometric traits in dromedaries. The top associated SNPs were related to pin width, whither to pin length, height at whither, muzzle girth, and tail length. Interestingly, the results highlight the association between whither height, muzzle circumference, tail length, whither to pin length. The identified candidate genes were associated with growth, body size, and immune system in other species.

Conclusions: We identified three key hub genes in the gene network analysis including ACTB, SOCS1 and ARFGEF1. In the central position of gene network, ACTB was detected as the most important gene related to muscle function. With this initial GWAS using GBS on dromedary camels for morphometric traits, we show that this SNP panel can be effective for genetic evaluation of growth in dromedaries. However, we suggest a higher-density SNP array may greatly improve the reliability of the results.

Keywords: Camelus dromedarius; candidate genes; genotyping by sequencing; single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematics of 12 morphometric traits in dromedaries.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The correlation coefficients of morphometric records in dromedaries.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Q‐Q plot displays GWAS results from TASSEL for morphometric traits in dromedaries.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Network of candidate genes related to morphometric traits in dromedaries.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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