A Genome-wide Associaton Study For Important Reproductive Traits In Pig

In this study,a duroc pig population(n=373)were phenotyped and genotyped with Illumina PorcineSNP60 Beadchip.After quality control of the genotype data,there were 373 individuals and 32,757 SNPs that can be used for further analysis.Then a genome-wide association study(GWAS)on nine lifetime reproductive traits(lifetime total number born,lifetime number born alive,lifetime number of stillbirth piglets,lifetime number of mummies,lifetime number born dead,removal parity,the ratio between lifetime nonproductive days and herd life,lifetime gestation length,total teats number),as well as eight reproduction traits of first parity(age at first mating,age at first farrowing,gestation length of first parity,total number born of first parity,number born alive of first parity,number stillbirth of first parity,number mummies of first parity,number born dead of first parity)were conducted to identify SNP markers and/or candidate genes that are significantly associated with these traits tested.The main results are as follows:1,By GWAS analysis,95 genome-wide significant SNPs(P <1.53E-06)and 130 potentially significant SNPs(P <3.05E-05)were identified among the 17 traits of interest.2,Through the comparison with the pig reference genome Sus scrofa Build 10.2,Ensembl database and GO,KEGG function enrichment analysis,eight candidate genes(NAT8,MC1 R,ITGA8,BHMT2,CFTR,OXTR,FGF14 and LMCD1)were identified to be associated with pig reproductive traits.This study will help to understand the genetic basis of reproductive traits in duroc pigs and provide theoretical references for further studies.