Investigation of the association between goat gene polymorphism and growth traits.

The () gene is key for DNA methylation and has been well recognized in regulating growth and development. A previous observation indicated that an 11-bp indel of affected the reproductive traits in goats, yet the effect of this polymorphism on body measurement traits in goats has not been reported. This study aims to investigate the associations between gene polymorphism and goat growth traits. We investigated this 11-bp indel in 2184 goats and three genotypes have been found in Shaanbei white cashmere goat (SBWC): insertion/insertion (II), deletion/deletion (DD) and insertion/deletion (ID). Only ID and DD genotypes were detected in Nubian goats and Guizhou heima goat (GZHM). The allele frequencies analyzed revealed that the 'D' allele frequencies were higher in all three goat breeds. Further association analysis demonstrated that this indel is markedly associated with the cannon circumference (CC) and cannon circumference index (CCI) of SBWC and cannon circumference (CC) of Nubian goats ( < .05). The CC and CCI are essential indicators to measure the growth status of goats. In summary, our study sheds some light on the potential impact of the 11-bp indel polymorphism of the gene on improving the growth traits in goats.