Gene by Birth Type Interaction in Merino Lambs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate genome wide association of genetic markers with birth weight (BWT) and the interaction of significant marker effects with birth type (BT) in Merino lambs. Data used in this study consisted of 6,463 birth weight records of lambs generated from 349 sires and 4,896 dams of Merino sheep, which were genotyped using the Illumina Ovine SNP50 BeadChip (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). After quality control 48,599 SNPs were included in the association study. We detected 11 and 15 genome-wide significant SNPs for birth weight in singles and twins, respectively, and 17 genome-wide significant SNPs were found when using all data. OAR6_41936490.1 and OAR6_41877997.1 were the most significant SNPs for single and twin birth weight, respectively. Among 17 significant SNPs detected by GWAS there were 9 that had a significant SNP by BT interaction, indicating that gene by BT interaction contributed to BWT variation.