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Chen A, Zhao X, Wen J, Zhao X, Wang G, Zhang X, Ren X, Zhang Y, Cheng X, Yu X, Mei X, Wang H, Guo M, Jiang X, Wei G, Wang X, Jiang R, Guo X, Ning Z, Qu L. Genetic parameter estimation and molecular foundation of chicken beak shape. Poult Sci 2024; 103:103666. [PMID: 38703454 PMCID: PMC11087718 DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103666] [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: 01/08/2024] [Revised: 03/02/2024] [Accepted: 03/12/2024] [Indexed: 05/06/2024] Open
Abstract
The bird beak is mainly functioned as feeding and attacking, and its shape has extremely important significance for survival and reproduction. In chickens, since beak shape could lead to some disadvantages including pecking and waste of feed, it is important to understand the inheritance of chicken beak shape. In the present study, we firstly established 4 indicators to describe the chicken beak shapes, including upper beak length (UL), lower beak length (LL), distance between upper and lower beak tips (DB) and upper beak curvature (BC). And then, we measured the 4 beak shape indicators as well as some production traits including body weight (BW), shank length (SL), egg weight (EW), eggshell strength (ES) of a layer breed, Rhode Island Red (RIR), in order to estimate genetic parameters of chicken beak shape. The heritabilities of UL and LL were 0.41 and 0.37, and the heritabilities of DB and BC were 0.22 and 0.21, indicating that beak shape was a highly or mediumly heritable. There were significant positive genetic and phenotypic correlations among UL, LL, and DB. And UL was positively correlated with body weight (BW18) and shank length (SL18) at 18 weeks of age in genetics, and DB was positively correlated with BC in terms of genetics and phenotype. We also found that layers of chicken cages played a role on beak shape, which could be attributed to the difference of lightness in different cage layers. By a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for the chicken UL, we identified 9 significant candidate genes associated with UL in RIR. For the variants with low minor allele frequencies (MAF <0.01) and outside of high linkage disequilibrium (LD) regions, we also conducted rare variant association studies (RVA) and GWAS to find the association between genotype and phenotype. We also analyzed transcriptomic data from multiple tissues of chicken embryos and revealed that all of the 9 genes were highly expressed in beak of chicken embryos, indicating their potential function for beak development. Our results provided the genetic foundation of chicken beak shape, which could help chicken breeding on beak related traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anqi Chen
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xiaoyu Zhao
- Xingrui Agricultural Stock Breeding, Baoding 072550, Hebei Province, China
| | - Junhui Wen
- Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
| | - Xiurong Zhao
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Gang Wang
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xinye Zhang
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xufang Ren
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Yalan Zhang
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xue Cheng
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xiaofan Yu
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xiaohan Mei
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Huie Wang
- Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Key Laboratory of Protection and Utilization of Biological Resources in Tarim Basin, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China
| | - Menghan Guo
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xiaoyu Jiang
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Guozhen Wei
- Qingliu Animal Husbandry, Veterinary and Aquatic Products Center, Sanming, China
| | - Xue Wang
- VVBK Animal Medical Diagnostic Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd, Beijing, China
| | - Runshen Jiang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China
| | - Xing Guo
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China
| | - Zhonghua Ning
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Lujiang Qu
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Key Laboratory of Protection and Utilization of Biological Resources in Tarim Basin, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China.
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