Genome-wide association study with of single nucleotide polymorphisms with chest width in in Severocavcazskaya sheep breed

The growing global demand for lamb poses the challenge for breeders to increase the meat productivity of existing sheep breeds. It depends on the combined influence of a large number of genes influencing the development of muscle tissue. Many of them have not yet been described as candidate genes for productive qualities, since the influence of genes may vary depending on the breed and living conditions of the animals. One of the most effective methods for searching for such genes is genome-wide association study (GWAS). The article presents GWAS results for the parameter “chest width” associated with meat productivity in sheep of the Severocavcazskaya sheep breed. Animal genotypeing was carried out using Illumina Ovine Infinium HD Bead-Chip 600K DNA biochips. Quality control of genotyping and GWAS were carried out using PLINK V.1.07 software. Visualization and plotting were performed using the “QQman” package in the “R” programming language. As a result, it was possible to identify 9 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that showed a significant connection with the studied phenotypic trait. Eight substitutions are localized in the introns of protein-coding genes, and the rs417623542 substitution is located in the exon. On this basis, we proposed 5 candidate genes associated with the studied parameter: DPYD, FSHR, PRR16, SLC19A3 and BMPR1B. The DPYD and SLC19A3 genes play an important role in metabolism; the FSHR, PRR16 and BMPR1B genes are involved in the regulation of cell growth and cell differentiation. Subsequent studies should be aimed at studying the structure of these genes to identify the mechanism of their influence on the parameters of animal meat productivity. The SNPs identified during the study can be used as molecular markers in sheep breeding.