A bi-dimensional genome scan for prolificacy traits in pigs shows the existence of multiple epistatic QTL
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Author
Rodríguez, Carmen
Tomàs, Anna
Muñoz, Gloria
Ramírez, Oscar
Barragán, Carmen
Arqué, Meritxell
Bidanel, Jean P
Amills, Marcel
Ovilo, Cristina
Sánchez, Armand
Publication date
2009-12-29ISSN
1471-2164
Abstract
Background: Prolificacy is the most important trait influencing the reproductive efficiency of pig
production systems. The low heritability and sex-limited expression of prolificacy have hindered to
some extent the improvement of this trait through artificial selection. Moreover, the relative
contributions of additive, dominant and epistatic QTL to the genetic variance of pig prolificacy
remain to be defined. In this work, we have undertaken this issue by performing one-dimensional
and bi-dimensional genome scans for number of piglets born alive (NBA) and total number of
piglets born (TNB) in a three generation Iberian by Meishan F2 intercross.
Results: The one-dimensional genome scan for NBA and TNB revealed the existence of two
genome-wide highly significant QTL located on SSC13 (P < 0.001) and SSC17 (P < 0.01) with effects
on both traits. This relative paucity of significant results contrasted very strongly with the wide
array of highly significant epistatic QTL that emerged in the bi-dimensional genome-wide scan
analysis. As much as 18 epistatic QTL were found for NBA (four at P < 0.01 and five at P < 0.05)
and TNB (three at P < 0.01 and six at P < 0.05), respectively. These epistatic QTL were distributed
in multiple genomic regions, which covered 13 of the 18 pig autosomes, and they had small
individual effects that ranged between 3 to 4% of the phenotypic variance. Different patterns of
interactions (a × a, a × d, d × a and d × d) were found amongst the epistatic QTL pairs identified
in the current work.
Conclusions: The complex inheritance of prolificacy traits in pigs has been evidenced by
identifying multiple additive (SSC13 and SSC17), dominant and epistatic QTL in an Iberian × Meishan
F
2 intercross. Our results demonstrate that a significant fraction of the phenotypic variance of
swine prolificacy traits can be attributed to first-order gene-by-gene interactions emphasizing that
the phenotypic effects of alleles might be strongly modulated by the genetic background where they
segregate.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
575 - General genetics. General cytogenetics
Pages
12
Publisher
BMC
Is part of
BMC Genomics
Citation
Noguera, José L, Carmen Rodríguez, Luis Varona, Anna Tomàs, Gloria Muñoz, Oscar Ramírez, Carmen Barragán, et al. 2009. “A Bi-dimensional Genome Scan for Prolificacy Traits in Pigs Shows the Existence of Multiple Epistatic QTL.” BMC Genomics 10 (1): 636. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-10-636
Grant agreement number
MICYT/ /AGL2000-1229-C03/ES/Detección de QTLS y genes candidatos que afectan a caracteres reproductivos de interés económico en el porcino/
Program
Genètica i Millora Animal
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2831]
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/