Genetic architecture of body weight, carcass, and internal organs traits of Ghanaian local chickens
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Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers in Front. Genetics
Abstract
Information on the genetic architecture of the production traits of indigenous
African chicken is limited. We performed a genome-wide association study using
imputed Affymetrix Axiom®
600K SNP-chip genotypes on 1,113 chickens from
three agroecological zones of Ghana. After quality control, a total of 382,240
SNPs remained. Variance components and heritabilities for some growth, carcass
and internal organ traits were estimated. The genetic and phenotypic correlations
among these traits were also estimated. The estimated heritabilities of body
weight at week 22 (BW22), average daily gain (ADG), dressed weight, breast
weight, thigh weight, wing weight, drumstick weight, and neck weight were high
and ranged from 0.50 to 0.69. Estimates of heritabilities for head weight, shank
weight, and gizzard weight were moderate (0.31–0.35) while those of liver
weight, back weight, dressing percentage, and heart weight were low
(0.13–0.21). The estimated heritabilities of dressed weight, breast weight, wing
weight, drumstick weight, neck weight, shank weight, and gizzard weight,
corrected for BW22, were moderate (0.29–0.38), while the remaining traits
had low heritability estimates (0.13–0.21). A total of 58 1-Mb SNP windows on
chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 18, and 33 each explained more than 1% of
the genetic variance for at least one of these traits. These genomic regions
contained many genes previously reported to have effects on growth, carcass,
and internal organ traits of chickens, including EMX2, CALCUL1, ACVR1B,
CACNB1, RB1, MLNR, FOXO1, NCARPG, LCORL, LAP3, LDB2, KPNA3, and
CAB39L. The moderate to high heritability estimates and high positive genetic
correlations suggest that BW22, ADG, dressed weight, breast weight, thigh
weight, wing weight, drumstick weight, and neck weight could be improved
through selective breeding
Description
Research Article
Keywords
GWAS, Ghanaian chicken ecotypes, carcass traits
Citation
Kanlisi RA, Amuzu-Aweh EN, Naazie A, Otsyina HR, Kelly TR, Gallardo RA, Lamont SJ, Zhou H, Dekkers J and Kayang BB (2024), Genetic architecture of body weight, carcass, and internal organs traits of Ghanaian local chickens. Front. Genet. 15:1297034. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1297034