SEARCH FOR CANDIDATE GENES ASSOCIATED WITH WITHERS HEIGHT OF THE JALGIN MERINO SHEEP BREED

Abstract

Genome-wide association study is a modern and powerful tool for identifying
polymorphisms and loci associated with economically significant traits of productive animals.
It is relevant to search for genetic markers associated with conformation characteristics. The
article presents the data obtained during a genome-wide association study for the indicator of
withers height in Jalgin merino sheep. Animal genotyping was performed using Ovine
Infinium HD BeadChip 600K DNA biochips. Quality control of genotyping as well as
genome-wide association study were performed with the use of PLINK V.1.07 toolset.
Visualization and plots were performed with the help of the “QQman” package in the “R”
programming language. As a result of the work accomplished, five single nucleotide
substitutions that overcame the significance threshold – log10 (p) = 5 were identified. The
polymorphisms rs417213266 and rs406848373 are located in the introns of protein-coding
genes, the substitutions rs400877889, rs425204656, rs402179120 are located in the intergenic
regions. The highest level of significance threshold of associations was found for
rs417213266 polymorphism located on the chromosome 1. Based on the research, 6 new
candidate genes associated with withers height in Jalgin merino sheep were suggested:
OLFML2B, RIMS2, CAAP1, LOC105612031, SF3B5, STX11. The genes listed perform a
number of important biological functions. Among other things, they are involved in the
regulation of metabolic processes. Further studies should be aimed at confirming the impact
of the suggested candidate genes on the phenotype of animals, as well as confirming the
relationship between the polymorphisms rs417213266, rs406848373, rs400877889,
rs425204656, rs402179120 and the conformation characteristics of sheep.