Dataset Information

Expression quantitative trait loci in sheep liver and muscle contribute to variations in meat traits.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Variants that regulate transcription, such as expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL), have shown enrichment in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for mammalian complex traits. However, no study has reported eQTL in sheep, although it is an important agricultural species for which many GWAS of complex meat traits have been conducted. Using RNA sequence data produced from liver and muscle from 149 sheep and imputed whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), our aim was to dissect the genetic architecture of the transcriptome by associating sheep genotypes with three major molecular phenotypes including gene expression (geQTL), exon expression (eeQTL) and RNA splicing (sQTL). We also examined these three types of eQTL for their enrichment in GWAS of multi-meat traits and fatty acid profiles.

Results

Whereas a relatively small number of molecular phenotypes were significantly heritable (h²?>?0, P?ConclusionsWe detected a large number of significant eQTL and found that the overlap of variants between eQTL types and tissues was prevalent. Many eQTL were also QTL for meat traits. Our study fills a gap in the knowledge on the regulatory variants and their role in complex traits for the sheep model.

SUBMITTER: Yuan Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7812657 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Expression quantitative trait loci in sheep liver and muscle contribute to variations in meat traits.

Yuan Zehu Z Sunduimijid Bolormaa B Xiang Ruidong R Behrendt Ralph R Knight Matthew I MI Mason Brett A BA Reich Coralie M CM Prowse-Wilkins Claire C Vander Jagt Christy J CJ Chamberlain Amanda J AJ MacLeod Iona M IM Li Fadi F Yue Xiangpeng X Daetwyler Hans D HD

Genetics, selection, evolution : GSE 20210118 1

<h4>Background</h4>Variants that regulate transcription, such as expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL), have shown enrichment in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for mammalian complex traits. However, no study has reported eQTL in sheep, although it is an important agricultural species for which many GWAS of complex meat traits have been conducted. Using RNA sequence data produced from liver and muscle from 149 sheep and imputed whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), our ...[more]

PMID: 33461502

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Project description:BackgroundDetection of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting meat quality traits in pigs is crucial for the design of efficient marker-assisted selection programs and to initiate efforts toward the identification of underlying polymorphisms. The RYR1 and PRKAG3 causative mutations, originally identified from major effects on meat characteristics, can be used both as controls for an overall QTL detection strategy for diversely affected traits and as a scale for detected QTL effects. We report on a microsatellite-based QTL detection scan including all autosomes for pig meat quality and carcass composition traits in an F2 population of 1,000 females and barrows resulting from an intercross between a Pietrain and a Large White-Hampshire-Duroc synthetic sire line. Our QTL detection design allowed side-by-side comparison of the RYR1 and PRKAG3 mutation effects seen as QTLs when segregating at low frequencies (0.03-0.08), with independent QTL effects detected from most of the same population, excluding any carrier of these mutations.ResultsLarge QTL effects were detected in the absence of the RYR1 and PRKGA3 mutations, accounting for 12.7% of phenotypic variation in loin colour redness CIE-a* on SSC6 and 15% of phenotypic variation in glycolytic potential on SSC1. We detected 8 significant QTLs with effects on meat quality traits and 20 significant QTLs for carcass composition and growth traits under these conditions. In control analyses including mutation carriers, RYR1 and PRKAG3 mutations were detected as QTLs, from highly significant to suggestive, and explained 53% to 5% of the phenotypic variance according to the trait.ConclusionsOur results suggest that part of muscle development and backfat thickness effects commonly attributed to the RYR1 mutation may be a consequence of linkage with independent QTLs affecting those traits. The proportion of variation explained by the most significant QTLs detected in this work is close to the influence of major-effect mutations on the least affected traits, but is one order of magnitude lower than effect on variance of traits primarily affected by these causative mutations. This suggests that uncovering physiological traits directly affected by genetic polymorphisms would be an appropriate approach for further characterization of QTLs.

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Dataset Information

Expression quantitative trait loci in sheep liver and muscle contribute to variations in meat traits.

Background

Results

Publications

Expression quantitative trait loci in sheep liver and muscle contribute to variations in meat traits.

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