Exploring the Impact of Insertion/Deletion in and Genes on Morphometric Traits in Sheep.

This study aimed to identify InDels from the and genes and to analyze their association with morphometric traits in Hu sheep (HS), Dupor sheep (DS), and Small Tail Han sheep (STHS). The and genes were genotyped using the insertion/deletion (InDel) method. A one-way ANOVA with SPSS 26.0 software (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to assess the effect of the InDel and genes on morphometric traits. The results revealed significant associations between certain InDels and the morphometric traits in different breeds of sheep. Specifically, was significantly associated with cannon circumference (CaC) in HS rams and body height (BoH) in HS ewes ( < 0.05). was also significantly associated with chest width (ChW), CaC, head length (HeL), and coccyx length (CoL) in the STHS breed ( < 0.05). showed significant associations with BoH in HS rams and BoH, back height (BaH), ChW, and chest depth (ChD) in HS ewes ( < 0.05). was also significantly associated with ChW in the DS and STHS breeds ( < 0.05). was significantly associated with body weight (BoW) in the DS breed and BoH in the STHS breed ( < 0.05). Furthermore, was significantly related to BoW in the DS breed and was significantly associated with CoL and forehead width (FoW) in the STHS breed ( < 0.05). In conclusion, the study suggested that InDels in the and genes could provide practical information to improve morphometric traits in sheep breeding.