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Yang Q, Lu X, Li G, Zhang H, Zhou C, Yin J, Han W, Yang H. Genetic Analysis of Egg Production Traits in Luhua Chickens: Insights from a Multi-Trait Animal Model and a Genome-Wide Association Study. Genes (Basel) 2024; 15:796. [PMID: 38927732 PMCID: PMC11202424 DOI: 10.3390/genes15060796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2024] [Revised: 06/10/2024] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Egg production plays a pivotal role in the economic viability of hens. To analyze the genetic rules of egg production, a total of 3151 Luhua chickens were selected, the egg production traits including egg weight at first laying (Start-EW), egg weight at 43 weeks (EW-43), egg number at 43 weeks (EN-43), and total egg number (EN-All) were recorded. Then, the effects of related factors on egg production traits were explored, using a multi-trait animal model for genetic parameter estimation and a genome-wide association study (GWAS). The results showed that body weight at first egg (BWFE), body weight at 43 weeks (BW-43), age at first egg (AFE), and seasons had significant effects on the egg production traits. Start-EW and EW-43 had moderate heritability of 0.30 and 0.21, while EN-43 and EN-All had low heritability of 0.13 and 0.16, respectively. Start-EW exhibited a robust positive correlation with EW-43, while Start-EW was negatively correlated with EN-43 and EN-All. Furthermore, gene ontology (GO) results indicated that Annexin A2 (ANXA2) and Frizzled family receptor 7 (FZD7) related to EW-43, Cyclin D1 (CCND1) and A2B adenosine receptor (ADORA2B) related to EN-All, and have been found to be mainly involved in metabolism and growth processes, and deserve more attention and further study. This study contributes to accelerating genetic progress in improving low heritability egg production traits in layers, especially in Luhua chickens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianwen Yang
- College of Mathematical Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China;
| | - Xubin Lu
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China; (X.L.); (H.Y.)
| | - Guohui Li
- Jiangsu Institute of Poultry Science, Yangzhou 225611, China; (G.L.); (H.Z.); (C.Z.); (J.Y.)
| | - Huiyong Zhang
- Jiangsu Institute of Poultry Science, Yangzhou 225611, China; (G.L.); (H.Z.); (C.Z.); (J.Y.)
| | - Chenghao Zhou
- Jiangsu Institute of Poultry Science, Yangzhou 225611, China; (G.L.); (H.Z.); (C.Z.); (J.Y.)
| | - Jianmei Yin
- Jiangsu Institute of Poultry Science, Yangzhou 225611, China; (G.L.); (H.Z.); (C.Z.); (J.Y.)
| | - Wei Han
- Jiangsu Institute of Poultry Science, Yangzhou 225611, China; (G.L.); (H.Z.); (C.Z.); (J.Y.)
| | - Haiming Yang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China; (X.L.); (H.Y.)
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Emamgholi Begli H, Schaeffer LR, Abdalla E, Lozada-Soto EA, Harlander-Matauschek A, Wood BJ, Baes CF. Genetic analysis of egg production traits in turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) using a single-step genomic random regression model. Genet Sel Evol 2021; 53:61. [PMID: 34284722 PMCID: PMC8290560 DOI: 10.1186/s12711-021-00655-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2020] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Egg production traits are economically important in poultry breeding programs. Previous studies have shown that incorporating genomic data can increase the accuracy of genetic prediction of egg production. Our objective was to estimate the genetic and phenotypic parameters of such traits and compare the prediction accuracy of pedigree-based random regression best linear unbiased prediction (RR-PBLUP) and genomic single-step random regression BLUP (RR-ssGBLUP). Egg production was recorded on 7422 birds during 24 consecutive weeks from first egg laid. Hatch-week of birth by week of lay and week of lay by age at first egg were fitted as fixed effects and body weight as a covariate, while additive genetic and permanent environment effects were fitted as random effects, along with heterogeneous residual variances over 24 weeks of egg production. Predictions accuracies were compared based on two statistics: (1) the correlation between estimated breeding values and phenotypes divided by the square root of the trait heritability, and (2) the ratio of the variance of BLUP predictions of individual Mendelian sampling effects divided by one half of the estimate of the additive genetic variance. RESULTS Heritability estimates along the production trajectory obtained with RR-PBLUP ranged from 0.09 to 0.22, with higher estimates for intermediate weeks. Estimates of phenotypic correlations between weekly egg production were lower than the corresponding genetic correlation estimates. Our results indicate that genetic correlations decreased over the laying period, with the highest estimate being between traits in later weeks and the lowest between early weeks and later ages. Prediction accuracies based on the correlation-based statistic ranged from 0.11 to 0.44 for RR-PBLUP and from 0.22 to 0.57 for RR-ssGBLUP using the correlation-based statistic. The ratios of the variances of BLUP predictions of Mendelian sampling effects and one half of the additive genetic variance ranged from 0.17 to 0.26 for RR-PBLUP and from 0.17 to 0.34 for RR-ssGBLUP. Although the improvement in accuracies from RR-ssGBLUP over those from RR-PBLUP was not uniform over time for either statistic, accuracies obtained with RR-ssGBLUP were generally equal to or higher than those with RR-PBLUP. CONCLUSIONS Our findings show the potential advantage of incorporating genomic data in genetic evaluation of egg production traits using random regression models, which can contribute to the genetic improvement of egg production in turkey populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hakimeh Emamgholi Begli
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada.
| | - Lawrence R Schaeffer
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Emhimad Abdalla
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Emmanuel A Lozada-Soto
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Alexandra Harlander-Matauschek
- Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Benjamin J Wood
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada.,Hybrid Turkeys, A Hendrix Genetics Company, Kitchener, N2K 3S2, Canada.,School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Gatton Campus, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Christine F Baes
- Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada.,Institute of Genetics, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, 3001, Bern, Switzerland
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