Ma Lina, Zhao Wei, Ma Qing, Wang Jin, Zhao Zhengwei, Zhang Juan, Gu Yaling
College of Animal Science and Technology, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China.
Institute of Animal Science, Ningxia Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Yinchuan 750002, China.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Dec 3;14(23):3495. doi: 10.3390/ani14233495.
The Chinese Tan sheep is a unique breed of sheep that is typical throughout China, mainly used for fur and meat production. They are widely distributed in northwestern China and are famous for their lambskin and shiny white curly wool. In this study, the phenotypic traits of wool length, birth weight, and head coat color were evaluated in 256 Chinese Tan sheep breeds. Whole genome sequencing generated 23.67 million high-quality SNPs for genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We identified 208 significant SNPs associated with birth wool length, implicating , , , , and as potential candidate genes for this trait. For birth weight, 1056 significant SNPs, with 76.89% of them located on chromosome 2, were identified by GWAS, and , , , , , and were identified as potential candidate genes for birth weight. The GWAS for head coat color identified 1424 significant SNPs across three chromosomes, with 99.65% on chromosome 14, and , , and as candidate genes were found to be possibly involved in the development of the black-headed coat color in sheep. Furthermore, we selected head coat color as a representative trait and performed an independent test of our GWAS findings through multiplex PCR SNP genotyping. The findings validated five mutation sites in chromosome 14 (14,251,947 T>A, 14,252,090 G>A, 14,252,158 C>T, 14,252,329 T>G, and 14,252,464 C>T) within the exon1 of the gene (517 bp), as identified by GWAS in an additional 102 Tan sheep individuals, and revealed that black-headed sheep predominantly exhibited heterozygous genotypes, possibly contributing to their color change. Our results provide a valuable foundation for further study of these three economically important traits, and enhance our understanding of genetic structure and variation in Chinese Tan sheep.
中国滩羊是中国特有的绵羊品种，在中国各地都很典型，主要用于生产毛皮和肉类。它们广泛分布于中国西北部，以其羔皮和闪亮的白色卷曲羊毛而闻名。在本研究中，对256个中国滩羊品种的羊毛长度、出生体重和头部毛色等表型性状进行了评估。全基因组测序产生了2367万个高质量单核苷酸多态性（SNP）用于全基因组关联研究（GWAS）。我们鉴定出208个与出生时羊毛长度相关的显著SNP，表明 、 、 、 、 和 是该性状的潜在候选基因。对于出生体重，通过GWAS鉴定出1056个显著SNP，其中76.89%位于2号染色体上， 、 、 、 、 和 被鉴定为出生体重的潜在候选基因。头部毛色的GWAS在三条染色体上鉴定出1424个显著SNP，其中99.65%位于14号染色体上，发现 、 、 和 作为候选基因可能参与绵羊黑头毛色的形成。此外，我们选择头部毛色作为代表性性状，并通过多重PCR SNP基因分型对GWAS结果进行了独立验证。研究结果在另外102只滩羊个体中验证了GWAS鉴定出的 基因（517 bp）外显子1内14号染色体上的五个突变位点（14,251,947 T>A、14,252,090 G>A、14,252,158 C>T、14,252,329 T>G和14,252,464 C>T），并揭示黑头羊主要表现为杂合基因型，这可能导致了它们的毛色变化。我们的结果为进一步研究这三个经济上重要的性状提供了有价值的基础，并增进了我们对中国滩羊遗传结构和变异的理解。
