Study of genetic architecture of feed conversion rate in Duroc young boars (Sus scrofa) based on the genome-wide SNP analysis

Feed conversion (feed conversion ratio - FCR, kg/kg), calculated as the ratio of the amount of feed intake to the body weight gain, is the most important trait that determines the economic efficiency of pork production. The development of automated feeding stations allows researchers to carry out an accurate individual measurements of feed intake in the group-housed pigs, which became the basis for the integration of the FCR in the breeding programs. The development of high-throughput genotyping methods for tens of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) made it possible to identify genetic factors associated with economically important animal traits at genome-wide level. Previous studies, performed in different pig breeds have shown the presence in the genome of the pig of multiple QTLs for FCR, while the regions of the genome identified in different studies were only partially overlapped. In this report, we present the genome-wide association studies results in one of the Russian Duroc boar population, which revealed the presence of 30 SNPs that were significantly associated with the feed conversion rate, as well as positional and functional candidate genes whose products are involved in the regulation of proliferation and differentiation various types of cells in lipid hematopoiesis and metabolism...