Ibeagha-Awemu Eveline M, Kgwatalala Patrick, Zhao Xin
Department of Animal Science, McGill University, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste Anne De Bellevue, Quebec, Canada, H9X 3V9.
Mamm Genome. 2008 Sep;19(9):591-617. doi: 10.1007/s00335-008-9141-x. Epub 2008 Oct 4.
Increasing productivity is one of the main objectives in animal production. Traditional breeding methods have led to increased gains in some traits but gains are not easily attainable in traits with low heritabilities. Exploiting the genetic variations underlying desired phenotypes is the goal of today's animal producers. Such positive genetic variants must, however, be known before possible application. Consequently, candidate genes of traits of interest have been searched for possible relationships with such traits or to explain reported quantitative trait loci (QTL) for such traits. DNA variants or polymorphisms have been identified in many such genes and their relationships with production traits determined. However, only a few genes have been evaluated, given the wealth of information on reported QTL for production traits, and in most cases genes are only partially investigated. This review presents available information on DNA variants for production traits and discusses steps that are required for effective utilization of this information for successful marker-assisted selection programs.
提高生产力是动物生产的主要目标之一。传统育种方法已使某些性状的增益有所增加，但对于低遗传力性状而言，增益并不容易实现。挖掘理想表型背后的遗传变异是当今动物生产者的目标。然而，在可能应用之前，必须先了解这些正向遗传变异。因此，人们一直在寻找感兴趣性状的候选基因，以探寻其与这些性状的可能关系，或解释此类性状已报道的数量性状位点（QTL）。在许多此类基因中已鉴定出DNA变异或多态性，并确定了它们与生产性状的关系。然而，鉴于已报道的生产性状QTL信息丰富，仅有少数基因得到了评估，而且在大多数情况下，对基因的研究只是局部的。本文综述了有关生产性状DNA变异的现有信息，并讨论了为成功实施标记辅助选择计划而有效利用这些信息所需的步骤。
