Investigation of potential genetic factors for growth traits in yellow-feather broilers using weighted single-step genome-wide association study

Yellow-feather broilers take a large por-tion of poultry industry in China due to its meat charac-teristics. Improving the growth traits of yellow-feathered broilers will have great significance for the Chinese poul-try market. The current study was designed to investigate the potential genetic factors using the weighted single-step genome-wide association study (wssGWAS) method, which takes consideration of more factors includ-ing pedigree, sex, environment and has more accuracy than traditional GWAS. The yellow-feather dwarf chick-ens from Wens Nanfang Poultry Breeding Co. Ltd. were revolved to recode 9 growth traits: Average daily gain (ADG), body weight (BW) at 45 d, 49 d, 56 d, 63 d, 70 d, 77 d, 84 d, 91 d for analysis. For the results, the region 4.63 to 5.03 Mb on chromosome 15, which was the QTL overlapped in BW45, BW49, BW56, BW63, BW84, might be the crucial genetic region for growth traits. Seven GO terms and 3 KEGG pathways, GO:0005200, GO:0005882, GO:0045111, GO:0099513, GO:0099081, GO:0099512, GO:0099080, KEGG:gga04020, KEGG: gga04540, KEGG:gga04210, were detected to relevant with growth traits. The genes enriched in these biological processes (NRAS, TUBB1, ADORA2B, NTRK3, NGF, TNNC2, F-KER, LOC429492, LOC431325, LOC431324, LOC396480) might have the function in growth of yellow-feather broilers.